Why You Should Do Your Exercises (or why we keep going on about it all the time)….
Nearly all of our patients get some exercises to do alongside their treatment, if we haven’t given any to you then you probably have a very acute injury or a recent trauma meaning it isn’t yet safe to stress the area affected.
If you have had some you will notice we nearly always ask if you are doing them, which gets met with a resounding’ yes’, a nervous ‘sometimes’, or a shifty ‘no’. Why do we bleat on about these sometimes tedious and often repetitive exercises? Isn’t it our job to make sure you get better? Why should you bother? Below we outline our case for why you should do your exercises…
It will keep your costs down
Everyone’s favourite reason. If you do your exercises they will help you (and us) achieve your treatment goals faster as all our prescribed exercises are designed to support and improve on the treatments that we provide. We see you up to twice a week if things are bad, you can do your exercises twice a day, the more you do them, the faster you get better, the cheaper it is for you!
Risk of further injury
Like any complex system, your body must be able to cope with stressors, in this case physical loads, and be able to absorb that load in ways that will not overstress it and lead to a breakdown (injury). The more areas that are weak or inflexible, the more likely the system is to fail (weakest link etc), this is seen in the body where inflexibility or over flexibility leads to injury (1).
Because you are getting older
As we get older our bodies change, one of the things that happens is that the body deposits more collagen in your muscles, tendons and joints (2). Collagen resists stretch in the body’s soft tissues, so when you stretch and you go as far as you can it is the collagen in your tissues that stop you going any further. The more collagen the less you can stretch. The good news is that collagen exists in a matrix called connective tissue, which also includes elastin, which helps you stretch. One of the properties of connective tissue is its ability to remodel itself based on applied stresses. The more you stretch and move, the less tough collagen you will have stopping your movements. Also you will have more elastin, this will help you stretch (3). You can’t stop yourself aging but stretch and your body will help you maintain effective movement and motion for a lot longer (4).
Guidelines and evidence
You know that exercise is beneficial to your general health, so why not do some to help with your condition lots of evidence to say that exercise (targeted and general) helps with pain and degenerative conditions in various parts of the body, low back pain (5), Knee pain (6), arthritis (7), and shoulder problems (8). We are experts at providing and prescribing exercises for most injuries or painful conditions, and we always do this in line with current evidence.
So, still don’t want to do your exercises? Surely that’s stretching the limits of believability, but feel free to exercise your right to choose……..:-)
Do you want to know what is causing your pain and if we can help? Why not take advantage of our new patient assessment introductory offer to get you started towards a tailor made recovery plan for only £19.
Are you in a lot of pain and want to get better as soon as possible? If so then why not book in for a new patient consultation, with treatment on the day, for £72.
We are also there to help you from home. Take a look at our suite of exercise resources and advice sheets which you can easily download and use from home.
References
1 – Thacker, S. B., J. Gilchrist, D. F. Stroup, and C. D. Kimsey, Jr. (2004). The Impact of Stretching on Sports Injury Risk: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 371–378.
2 – Magee, D, Zachezewski, J, Quilllen, W, (2007). Scientific Foundations and Principles of Practice in Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation. Elselvier, Missouri.
3 – Schleip, R. Findley, T, Chaitow, L and Huijing, P (2012). Fascia, the Tensional Network of the Human Body. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh.
4 – Viidik, A., 1980. Mechanical properties of parallel-fibred collagenous tissues. In: Viidik, A., Vuust, J. (Eds.), Biology of Collagen. Academy Press, New York, pp. 237e255.
5 – NICE Draft Guidelines for Low Back Pain and Sciatica Management (2016). Available at, https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/GID-CGWAVE0681/documents/short-version-….
6 – Carnes, M, & Vizniak, N. (2011). Conditions Manual. Professional Health Systems, Canada.
7 – Fransen et al (2015). Exercise for osteoarthritis of the knee. Available at, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD004376.pub3/abstract.
8 – Seffinger, M. and Hruby, R., 2007. Evidence Based Manual Medicine – A Problem Based Approach. Philadelphia, Elselvier.