What Physiotherapy Exercises Should You Do?

It is important that our exercises should not be painful. Research does inform us that pain inhibits muscles from performing to their optimum, therefore painful exercise are counter-productive for health and fitness. A physiotherapist will thoroughly examine us and prescribe a series of exercises suitable for us in quantities that will not injure us further.

Is it harmful if we stop exercises?

Without some simple exercises, we know that certain muscles can become weak. When these supporting muscles are weak, our injured structures are inadequately supported and predispose us to lingering symptoms or further injury. We can also over-activate adjacent muscles that may lead to further injury. It is also important to understand that even if we are "in good shape," we may have important but weak localised or stability muscles. When we have an injury, we should perform specific exercises that specifically strengthen the muscles around our injury and the adjacent joints. Our physiotherapist will assess our muscle function and prescribe the right exercises specific for our needs. The exercises prescribed will usually be relatively simple, and do not require any special weights equipment, and can be performed safely at home.

When our physiotherapist prescribes our individualised dose or exercises, they are using their professional expertise to optimise our exercise dose. Exercise when prescribed by an expert such as our physiotherapist should be treated as our mandatory dose as prescribed by our physiotherapist. Just like when we don't take our blood pressure medication, we can't expect the drugs to work, similarly our body will not benefit if we skip our "exercise dose".