Physiotherapy Exercises to Rebuild Strength and Improve Mobility
Losing the ability to move around easily and freely is a traumatic consequence of a wide range of illnesses and injuries. Physiotherapy exercises can help you to regain your strength and mobility either in full or in part, or they can help you to compensate for permanent damage by doing things differently to the way you always did.
Examples of situations in which physiotherapy exercises can help you to regain strength and mobility include:
- Recovery after a sporting injury or accident
- Regaining mobility after suffering a stroke
- Reducing the loss of mobility caused by arthritis
- Recovery after surgery
- Compensating for neural damage caused by accidents or illnesses
- Managing pain that limits mobility
Sometimes, it is impossible to regain full mobility, but there are ways in which you can compensate. At others, it is possible to regain full mobility, and physiotherapy can help you to get there faster.
Finally, there are instances in which people have been immobilized for an extended period owing to illness and have experienced muscle wasting as a result. In this case, it’s just a matter of rebuilding lost strength. Again, physiotherapy exercises have the answers.
Why Choose a Physiotherapist?
You might be wondering why we don’t recommend going to a gym instructor for an exercise program. However, if you spoke to a qualified gym instructor, he or she would be the first to say that you should only embark on a gym exercise program after approval from a medical professional.
While fitness experts are there to help people build up their physical powers, their expertise doesn’t extend to rehabilitative exercises for medical conditions or severe injuries. An experienced physiotherapist, on the other hand, spends years of study learning how to prescribe exercises that will help and not hurt you.
At times, we use the same exercises that gym instructors teach, but they’re carefully chosen after assessing your condition. If you’re eager to return to your gym routine or favourite sport, discuss it with your physiotherapist during your assessment. You will get the go-ahead as soon as you are ready to undertake these activities without reinjuring yourself.
Can You DIY It?
There are some generic exercises that can help people with various kinds of mobility problems. However, the wrong exercises undertaken using the wrong techniques can aggravate your condition rather than improving it.
You not only need an individualized program that’s developed using the information we gather during your assessment appointment, we also make sure that you’re doing the exercises correctly before allowing you to continue with them at home.
Do You Have to go to the Physiotherapist Often?
As you know, exercise isn’t much good unless you go through your routine frequently. However, you need not go to your physiotherapist every time you do your physiotherapy exercises. Once you have mastered your routine, you simply continue to exercise at home.
Your physiotherapist will recommend follow-up appointments to monitor your progress and to adjust your physiotherapy exercise routine as needed. Helping people to regain their strength and mobility is the most rewarding aspect of a physiotherapists job. Exercise is only one of the interventions we use, but it is the most important one. Contact us or speak to your doctor if you want to find out whether physiotherapy can help you.
