In today’s weekly vlog David Fitzgerald from Dublin Physiotherapy explores the world of home exercises and its pros and cons.
Most people who are following a physiotherapy treatment with a specialist will also be prescribed some form of home exercise to help them stay on track and speed up the healing process.
Very often, however, people can get frustrated with home exercises; they take the view that, if they are having treatment, then the treatment should be enough. The simple fact is, however, that very often treatment once a week is not sufficient to help people move forward unless it is supplemented with some home exercises as well.
The purpose of a home exercise program is to try and get a balance between one-on-one contact and a structured home exercise program.
Why is Home Exercise Necessary?
So, as David says, home exercise is the best way to get a full recovery in the shortest space of time. If on the one hand there is no doubt that home exercise will speed up the healing process, on the other hand, it is essential to find the right combination of exercises for each patient. For this reason, it is important to seek professional advice as not every exercise routine will work for every issue. No two exercises are created the same so it comes down to what specifically the patient requires.
From the patient’s perspective, when committing to an exercise routine, it is important to see changes or a line of improvement; if you’re not really achieving anything, then you should go back to your practitioner explaining the situation and asking for a more suitable exercise routine.
Based on what phase the patient is in, it is more or less opportune to implement extra exercises to their routine (i.e. running, exercise classes or jogging).
Pros and Cons of Home Exercise
David himself is a big advocate of home exercise as he believes it’s a very efficient way for patients to speed the healing process. He believes that even 20 minutes three times a week can make all the difference, without taking too time away.
The biggest pro of home exercise is that you are in command of how much you want to spend doing it; if you manage to put time aside and put more efforts into it, you will be able to achieve the results you want to achieve in almost no time at all.
If your problem is a lack of time, then the difference between an exercise program and going to the gym is that, while home exercise will only take 20 minutes away from your day, going to the gym will require at least two hours.
Something that slips under the radar very often is the patient’s ability to complete their exercise routine.
A con we find for home exercise is that people often try exercises that are too hard for them, not being able to produce anything worthwhile. On the other hand of the scale, some people might also fall into the routine of working on exercises that are just too easy for them.
The Key to The Perfect Training Regime
So, the key to the perfect strengthening regime is to work at a threshold that produces a training effect. When that is missing you will end up wasting your time.
A lot of people stick to the same exercises every week, often wandering why things aren’t changing. The basic principle of strengthening exercises is called “progressive overload” so you need to mix the exercises and change the loading. There are, in fact, a lot of variations that need to happen for your home exercise to be effective and your practitioner should be able to advise you on them.
One of the apparent ‘cons’ of home exercise is the lack of space. This is a problem that can easily be overcome by choosing exercises that are more time and space-efficient. Training that involves bodyweight, for instance, doesn’t require too much space and you will be able to exercise almost anywhere in your house; in your living room, near the side of your bed or even in the kitchen – remember, it only takes 20 minutes!
These are only a few of the key points David Fitzgerald has discussed in today’s video, if you would like to hear more pros and cons of home exercise then watch the video above to learn everything there is to know about this efficient way of speeding up your healing process!
