Strength Exercises
Article by John Miller
Strengthening Exercises
Strengthening exercises are best known for bulking up your muscles and lift heavyweights. However, strengthening exercises have different requirements depending upon your treatment goals, sport or function.
Basic muscle strength is required for joint control during your simple everyday tasks. These tasks can include static activities (such as sitting or standing posture) or dynamic activities (such as walking, running, reaching, lifting or throwing). The tasks you require strengthening for pre-determines the specific strengthening exercises that will help you achieve your goals. Your physiotherapist is an expert who can guide you.
In addition to muscle strength, which can involve power, endurance, and contraction speed, the timing and balance of muscle contractions are very important.
Specific Muscle Strengthening
Your muscles have different roles to play. Muscles are predominately fast twitch, slow twitch or endurance-based stabilisation muscles. Their roles all differ, so they should be exercised depending upon their specific characteristics. For example,
Stability muscle exercises generally are low intensity – long-duration type exercises.
Dynamic strengthening exercises are more likely to be higher intensity (weight, speed, power) and shorter duration, but this can vary.
Eccentric strengthening exercises are important for both speed and weight-bearing control.
Each strengthening exercise and the speed that it is performed will strengthen your muscles in different ways. The best way to prioritise the exact strength exercises that are most appropriate to your needs is to discuss your case with your physiotherapist or sports coach.
What are Core Strength Exercises?
Core stability retraining is a vital component of optimising your core strength program while reducing your chance of injury and improved performance. In basic terms, your core muscle provides a solid platform that your dynamic muscles enact upon. In most cases, your abdomen or back core muscles are the best-known core muscles, but they also exist in other regions.
The important thing to remember is that if you are not performing core stability exercises, you should be! It’s one reason why elite athletes are elite performers.
More information about Core Exercises.
More Strengthening Exercise Advice
Your physiotherapist is an expert in assessing and correcting muscle strength deficits, timing, and individually prescribed strengthening exercises appropriate for your injury, sport, or lifestyle. It is important to remember that individual injuries, stage of rehabilitation, age, gender, sport, or activity level will dictate the best exercises suitable for you.
Seek the professional advice of your physiotherapist if you require more specific strengthening advice.
What is Physiotherapy Treatment?
Physiotherapists help people affected by illness, injury or disability through exercise, manual joint therapy, soft tissue techniques, education and advice. Physiotherapists maintain physical health, allow patients to manage pain and prevent disease for people of all ages. Physiotherapists help encourage pain relief, injury recovery, enabling people to stay playing a sport, working or performing daily living activities while assisting them to remain functionally independent.
There is a multitude of different physiotherapy treatment approaches.
Acute & Sub-Acute Injury Management
Hands-On Physiotherapy Techniques
Your physiotherapist's training includes hands-on physiotherapy techniques such as:
- Joint Mobilisation (gentle joint gliding techniques)
- Joint Manipulation
- Physiotherapy Instrument Mobilisation (PIM)
- Minimal Energy Techniques (METs)
- Massage
- Soft Tissue Techniques
Your physiotherapist has skilled training. Physiotherapy techniques have expanded over the past few decades. They have researched, upskilled and educated themselves in a spectrum of allied health skills. These skills include techniques shared with other healthcare practitioners. Professions include exercise physiologists, remedial massage therapists, osteopaths, acupuncturists, kinesiologists, chiropractors and occupational therapists, to name a few.
Physiotherapy Taping
Your physiotherapist is a highly skilled professional who utilises strapping and taping techniques to prevent and assist injuries or pain relief and function.
Alternatively, your physiotherapist may recommend a supportive brace.
Acupuncture and Dry Needling
Many physiotherapists have acquired additional training in acupuncture and dry needling to assist pain relief and muscle function.
Physiotherapy Exercises
Physiotherapists have been trained in the use of exercise therapy to strengthen your muscles and improve your function. Physiotherapy exercises use evidence-based protocols where possible as an effective way that you can solve or prevent pain and injury. Your physiotherapist is highly skilled in prescribing the "best exercises" for you and the most appropriate "exercise dose" for you, depending on your rehabilitation status. Your physiotherapist will incorporate essential pilates, yoga and exercise physiology components to provide you with the best result. They may even use Real-Time Ultrasound Physiotherapy so that you can watch your muscles contract on a screen as you correctly retrain them.
- Muscle Stretching
- Core Exercises
- Strengthening Exercises
- Neurodynamics
- Balance Exercises
- Proprioception Exercises
- Real-Time Ultrasound Physiotherapy
- Swiss Ball Exercises
Biomechanical Analysis
Biomechanical assessment, observation and diagnostic skills are paramount to the best treatment. Your physiotherapist is a highly skilled health professional. They possess superb diagnostic skills to detect and ultimately avoid musculoskeletal and sports injuries. Poor technique or posture is one of the most common sources of a repeat injury.
Hydrotherapy
Aquatic water exercises are an effective method to provide low bodyweight exercises.
Sports Physiotherapy
Sports physio requires an extra level of knowledge and physiotherapy to assist injury recovery, prevent injury and improve performance. For the best advice, consult a Sports & Exercise Physiotherapist.
Vestibular Physiotherapy
Women's Health
Women's Health Physiotherapy is a particular interest group of therapies.
Workplace Physiotherapy
Not only can your physiotherapist assist you in sport, but they can also help you at work. Ergonomics looks at the best postures and workstations set up for your body at work or home. Whether it be lifting technique improvement, education programs or workstation setups, your physiotherapist can help you.
Electrotherapy
Plus Much More
Your physiotherapist is a highly skilled body mechanic. A physiotherapist has particular interests in certain injuries or specific conditions. For advice regarding your problem, please get in touch with your PhysioWorks team.
What Are The Ideal Core Exercises?
Your deep core stability muscles retraining uses specific low-level activation exercises. While a very skilled physiotherapist who has training in deep core activation can observe and palpate for the correct muscle contraction, the best way is to see them working on a real-time ultrasound scan. Real-Time Ultrasound Physiotherapy guidance allows you to see how your muscles are contracting in real-time. This visual feedback will enable you to correct your specific deep core muscles inside your stomach, lower back, and pelvic floor as you attempt to contract those muscles.Beware of “Core Stability” Exercises!
The fitness industry is full of fitness instructors who profess to know how to activate your core stability muscles. Unfortunately, the wrong core exercises will do you harm. Most progress your core exercises far too quickly and bypass these critical muscles to further strengthen your outer abdominal muscles and leave your deep core muscles weak. Research evidence has found that this renders you vulnerable to lower back pain and injury.
Article by John Miller
Is an Exercise Ball Good for Lower Back Pain?
Back pain is often the result of having weak stabilising muscles supporting your joints. Without strong support, your joints collapse. Your bony skeletons don't stand up by themselves. The bones are held upright by efficient, supportive muscles that work across every joint in your body.
Research has shown us that pain causes these supportive muscles (known as your "stabilisers" or "inner core stability" muscles) to stop working. Research on lower back pain sufferers has found that these muscles stop working every time you experience back pain.
Even worse, in most cases, these muscles don't automatically start working again when your pain goes. They need to be deliberately re-started by your brain.
Your exercise ball is an unstable surface. When you sit or exercise upon one of these balls, your body automatically recruits your natural balance reactions. One of the critical components of your balance reaction system is the activation of your core stabilising muscles. With repeated use over just a few days, your stabilising muscles will usually automatically start working again in most cases.
So, doe the use of an exercise ball help lower back pain? In most cases, YES. But, in some cases, it can aggravate your lower back pain. Please consult your trusted back pain physiotherapist for an individualised assessment and back care program.
There are several ways to reactivate your core stability muscles. One of the most effective is to use a Physio Exercise Ball. Usually, some simple exercise all exercises can often automatically 'kick start' these stabilising muscles.
Your physiotherapist has special training in the reactivation techniques of these stabilising muscles. For more advice, please get in touch with your physiotherapist.
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Why Do Physiotherapists Prescribe You Exercises?
The prescription of exercise appropriate to you and your injury or fitness level is one of the many professional skills of a physiotherapist. Whether you have suffered an acute injury, chronic deconditioning or are recovering from surgery, the correct exercise prescription is essential. That's why your physiotherapist's knowledge and skills will personalise your exercise dose. Your physiotherapist not only is educated in injury diagnosis but also exercise physiology or the science of exercise. This training enables your physiotherapist to assess and diagnose your injury, plus also to prescribe injury, fitness or age-appropriate activities targeted to you now.What Exercises Should You Do?
Your exercises shouldn't be painful. Please take caution with some overzealous exercise prescribers who believe that the more painful the activity, the better. Thus simply isn't true—notably, the frail, immunosuppressed, deconditioned or post-operative person. You'll find that your physiotherapist will thoroughly examine you and prescribe a series of exercises suitable for you in quantities that will not injure you further. Please seek an exercise expert, such as your physiotherapist, when you are planning your rehabilitation.What Happens When You Stop Exercises?
Without some simple exercises, we know that specific muscles can become weak. When these supporting muscles are weak, your injured structures are inadequately supported and predispose you to linger symptoms or further injury. You can also over-activate adjacent muscles that may lead to further damage. It is also essential to understand that even if you are "in good shape", you may have crucial but weak localised or stability muscles. When you have an injury, you should perform specific exercises that specifically strengthen the muscles around your injury and the adjacent joints. Your physiotherapist will assess your muscle function and prescribe the right exercises specific to your needs. The exercises prescribed will usually be relatively simple, and do not require any special weights equipment, and can be performed safely at home.Would You Stop Your Daily Prescription Drugs?
Your physiotherapist will prescribe your individualised dose or exercises. They are using their professional expertise to optimise your exercise dose. Would you just stop taking your regular blood pressure medication because you were too busy or didn't think it was working? We would hope not! Exercise, when prescribed by an expert such as your physiotherapist, should be treated as your recommended dose. Just like when you don't take your blood pressure medication, you can't expect the drugs to work if you don't take them as prescribed by your health professional. So, next time you skip your "exercise dose" just remember that you are not putting your health first. If you have any questions, please contact your Physio Works physiotherapist for your best care.-
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What Causes Muscular Pain?
You know the feeling… dreaded “stiff and sore muscles” a day or two after you’ve done a little more exercise than usual. Shortly after exercise begins, a mix of lactic and carbonic acids builds up in muscle tissue. These acids are waste products of muscle contractions. Don’t worry these acids are normal. To produce “energy”, muscles burn stored glycogen. Lactic and carbonic acids are by-products of this metabolic process. The good news is that most of these acids convert back into glycogen and are restored in preparation for your next bout of exercise. Pain and muscle fatigue can exist until the acid levels in your muscles return to normal.How Does Massage Help?
Massage helps to eliminate the irritation caused by these acidic wastes. Research shows that massage can increase muscle recovery much quicker than rest alone.Why is Massage So Useful When You Exercise?
Regular exercise causes many body changes. To meet the demand for more oxygen and nutrients, one improvement is the increase in blood vessels to the muscles. This circulation increase helps to eliminate the waste products and toxins that build up with exercise. Importantly, it can take several weeks to develop improved muscular circulation. Until the blood supply increases, you will have trouble with oxygen and nutrients supply. This allows toxic wastes to back up and stagnate. You will experience soreness, pain and stiffness. Many exercise enthusiasts regard aches and pains as the inevitable price to be paid. This is usually not true.What about Muscle & Joint Stiffness?
Massage eases muscle and joint stiffness. Using massage strokes to reduce muscle tension and passive movement to stretch the connective tissue found around joints, massage will improve your performance. Massage also lengthens muscle and tendon units to help prevent injuries from occurring in the first place.What about Soft Tissue Injuries and Massage?
Massage aids recovery from soft tissue injuries such as sprains and strains. Tissue repair accelerates by increasing circulation in the injured area. Massage therapy can help speed, improve recovery, and reduce discomfort from soft tissue injuries.Massage is Drug-Free Treatment
Massage is a drugless therapy. Headaches, insomnia, neck and back pain, digestive disorders including constipation and spastic colon, arthritis, asthma, carpal tunnel syndrome and muscular aches and pains are just some of the problems that can respond to massage therapy.-
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