From time to time in life we will get injured, it could be that you are an elite sports person or simply just out walking the dog and a bit of pavement sneaks up on you. If you seek medial attention from an allied health professional, chances are you will be given an exercise program to help rehabilitate the injured tissue. This blog will discuss the reasons why it is important to stick to these prescribed exercise programs.
Return to exercise
Being able to return to exercise might be a goal of your recovery. This may be simply walking around the block or training for a marathon. When an injury occurs sometimes damage can occur to a tissue. Completing rehab exercises is a way in which you can help the tissue get used to the strain it will be under when completing the movement that is your goal. The load the tissue is under can be progressed as you move through the program.
Not moving after an muscuoskelatal injury is a somewhat outdated notion (in most cases, obviously there are exceptions). One side effect of not completing rehab exercises is that your range of motion in a joint can be impacted and make it harder to reach your goals.
Decrease the chance of the injury happening again
When a tissue is underloaded after an injury and then returns to sport or the original load it was under, there is a higher chance of re injuring that tissue. The aim of completing a rehab program is to help to get the injured tissue back to withstanding the load it needs to, to complete the desired movement pattern and therefore decrease the chance of re occurrence.
Improve on strength from before the injury
Completing rehab exercises can also be used to help improve on your strength or range of
motion from where your base levels where before you even had an injury. They may even help improve this in other areas of the body. For example Calf raises used to help with heel pain may improve strength in the posterior leg compartment.
Improved quality of life
Mental health can play a huge role when recovering from an injury. Particularly if you were working towards a goal or the injury if effecting your day to day life. Being able to move your body in some form may help improve your quality of life. By completing a rehab exercise program you may gain some satisfaction of meeting smaller goals which you can set for yourself.
How can a podiatrist help ?
Help you come up with goals
A podiatrist can help you work out what your goal is after recovery from the injury and also help you work towards meeting that goal with a tailored exercise program.
Progress a program to meet you return to exercise needs
A podiatrist will be able to design a program to meet your specific needs and help you reach your end goals by progressing your exercises to load the tissue to meet your needs.
Use other treatment modalities to help decrease pain to be able to complete rehab
A barrier to completing an exercises program if often the pain that can be linked to an injury. A podiatrist can help by using other treatment modalities to help reduce pain and enable you to complete your exercises. This may include laser therapy, shockwave, ultrasound or dry needling.
Footwear education
A podiatrist can preform a footwear assessment to help ensure the shoes you are wearing meet
your activity of choice. For example are you wearing netball shoes or do your runners need to be replaced.
Luckily here at Foot Body Sole we have access to regenerative therapies and if want to find out more about your injury or you have been wanting to seek help, please don't hesitate to contact us at info@footbodysole.com.au or 8648 7678 or come in store to chat to our friendly staff.
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