Custom Therapeutic Exercises

What Are Therapeutic Exercises

Therapeutic exercises are movements, stretches, or postures meant to restore graceful, pain-free movement for our patients. While plans are always individualized, these programs typically include exercises from the following three categories:

• Strength and endurance-building exercises such as weightlifting or walking
• Flexibility exercises including prescribed stationary and moving stretches
• Balance, coordination and mobility exercises to move the body efficiently and gracefully as a unified whole

The exercises in these categories are all critical to maximizing fitness and reducing symptoms. The goal we have for each of our patients is a strong, flexible body that moves with good balance and exceptional coordination.

Chiropractors and Customized Therapeutic Exercises

At West Suburban Wellness, our team of chiropractors knows about balancing work, family, and other demands. We want any intervention we prescribe to make the best use of our patients’ time and effort. Therefore, we carefully select exercises to meet our patients’ needs and fit their busy lifestyles.

Benefits of Therapeutic Exercise

Movement has many mental, physical, and social health benefits. Some of the most critical include:

• Controls weight
• Encourages restful sleep
• Increases energy
• Improves sex life
• Boosts mood
• Builds social connections
• Reduces the risk for falls, high blood pressure, stroke, type 2 diabetes, anxiety, depression, and many other health conditions

Exercise combined with chiropractic insight optimizes each of these benefits by targeting spinal and neurological health. When the brain and body are in excellent condition, they can work together to more efficiently and effectively bring about positive health changes.

What a Typical Custom Therapeutic Exercise Plan Includes

Our exercise plans are designed to help improve functional abilities. Many of our relatively young patients often wonder what that means for them since they have no problem with carrying groceries from their car or performing household maintenance tasks. We explain that we want more for our patients than the minimum.

No matter what level of functional fitness one has, one can constantly improve. Our patients who have higher levels of fitness receive exercises and goals that challenge them. Patients with health issues that interfere with movement receive equally challenging goals. Still, they are working on different activities with modifications to guard against whatever injuries they may be more likely to sustain.

After conducting a full battery of functional fitness tests, we analyze the results for patterns. Once we determine a patient’s strengths and weaknesses, we begin designing a custom therapeutic exercise plan for them by matching areas that need improvement with exercises we know get results. Before offering an exercise or movement to our patients, we research it and ensure it can safely deliver benefits.

One factor that we always take into account is patient safety. At West Suburban Wellness, our first mission is to do no harm, and that extends to any movement programs we prescribe. No matter what their level of fitness, we never assume that a patient can go without guidance in this area or that we don’t need to design their fitness program with safety in mind.

Developing a list of activities and movements to avoid is as important as knowing what to include. For example, we see many patients who have rheumatoid arthritis. This is an autoimmune condition that has periodic flares of symptoms in which some movements can become extremely painful. Our patients living with rheumatoid arthritis typically have two exercise programs. One is for non-flare days and extends their fitness to its maximum intensity. The other is for flare days and focuses on gentle, nourishing movement that supports the rebalancing of their immune system.

After we’ve drawn up a list of exclusions, we focus on creating a list of exercises to provide a balanced program of strength, flexibility, and coordination training. Our chiropractic skill is indispensable since we use our intimate knowledge of the neurological system to create movements that maximize spine, nerve, and brain health. Bringing the body’s master communication system to peak performance creates stable, ordered governance over everything that happens in the body.

Of course, exercise isn’t any good if patients don’t perform it consistently. Since they’re the ones who need to do the exercises every day, we covet patient input. We ask patients if they want to do the activities we’re about to prescribe, and we love it when they tell us they refuse to do a particular exercise. There are many variations for most of the movements we prescribe, and we enjoy accommodating our patients’ preferences.

One issue many of our patients have is juggling multiple roles. Our patients have busy family, school, and work schedules. Some of them can’t find thirty or even fifteen consecutive minutes to complete a custom exercise plan each day. This is not a problem. We’re happy to schedule exercise in ten or even five-minute bursts so our patients can add chiropractic fitness to their daily lives.

Let West Suburban Wellness Create a Custom Exercise Plan for You

At West Suburban Wellness, seeing a patient reap the benefits of a chiropractic custom therapeutic exercise plan is one of the highlights. If you’d like to harness the power of chiropractic care to maximize the rewards of exercise, please give us a call. Our team will be happy to answer your questions or schedule a consultation.