Therapeutic Exercise

We may include therapeutic exercise in treatment program for the purposes of pain reduction, muscle strengthening, or general rehabilitation and retaining after a serious injury, a surgery or a major illness such as a stroke. Patients who participate in a therapeutic exercise program will also typically be provided withexercise assignments to be performed at home in between physical therapy appointments, to help maintain an optimal level of fitness, in addition to helping avoid the return of their previous condition. When a patient participates in therapeutic exercise at the direction of a physical therapist, they will also learn the proper way to exercise, in order to avoid injury.

A physical therapy exercise program may encompass a wide range of activities, including:stretching exercises, bending exercises\, lifts, rotations, rocking exercises, arching and extensions, for various body parts. Specific exercises that may be integrated into a therapeutic exercise program include: controlled leg raises, core strengthening exercises, crunches, dynamic stabilization exercises, hyperextensions, lumbar traction and pelvic tilts. Therapeutic exercise programs may also incorporate a wide range of exercise equipment, such as abdominal machines, cable columns/pulleys, elliptical machines, exercise bars, recumbent cycles, resistance bands, rowers, steppers and treadmills.

Water therapy (also known as aquatic therapy or hydrotherapy) may also be included in a therapeutic exercise program, when weight bearing activities cannot be sustained, which may be applicable to some patients who are elderly, to those who are disabled, and for those who are excessively obese. Heat therapy and massage therapy may also be incorporated in to some therapeutic exercise programs, in order to relax patients’ muscles at the end of each treatment session.

Therapeutic exercise is a very common type of treatment that is used by physical therapists to treat patients who need rehabilitation after an accident, surgery, athletic injury or workplace injury.Conditions such as acute or chronic back pain, neck pain, hip pain, leg pain and abdominal pain may also be improved to varying degrees, through the strengthening and stretching activities that are included in most therapeutic exercise programs.

Please contact us if you would like more information about exercise therapy.