How Strength Training Can Compliment Physiotherapy

If you have ever suffered an injury which has required physiotherapy exercises and appointments, you will understand the benefits of effective physiotherapy. Physiotherapists aim to restore proper function to the body wherever possible when there has been injury or impairment which has caused dysfunction. Usually this is done with very specific exercises which are highly targeted to certain muscles or muscle groups as well as specific manipulations and muscle release techniques. Personal trainers working in rehabilitation aim to strengthen and balance muscles so that proper function can be restored. This is achieved by combining function, with a comfortable amount of load in order to strengthen many muscles at once.

How can strength training compliment physiotherapy treatments?

If you have an injury to your ankle, knee or back, you will benefit from physiotherapy, which is applied to strengthen certain specific muscles and release others. A qualified personal trainer will also be able to assist you in strengthening the surrounding areas of muscle so that they can learn to contract in a functional way again. With a back injury for example, physiotherapists will aim to restore function through specific muscle contractions such as switching on your transverse abdominis (TA) and maybe strengthening your adductors with very fine exercises. A personal trainer would then integrate a functional movement into your program to teach your body how it should use those muscles in your legs, back and core. An Exercise such as the seated row would teach your body to integrate core, back and arm muscles to work together.

There are generally 3 stages to correcting a dysfunction in the body:

1. Identify the problem (usually muscular imbalance of some sort)
2. Correct the problem with specific exercises, manipulations and/or releases (physiotherapy)
3. Further correct the problem by restoring functional movement under load (strength training)

The third step is a necessary part of any rehabilitation strategy which is often overlooked. It allows the patient to get continual relief from dysfunction by constantly improving his/her ability to contract particular muscles in a functional way and under load (with weights). This allows constant improvement and makes it easier to return to regular work and life activities.

One of the most important things when entering a strength training program for the purposes of rehabilitation is to ensure that the load is sufficient to make a positive difference, but not so much that it is going to cause the problem to flare up. It’s good to have a qualified personal trainer to guide you through correct exercise progressions and technique.

Chris Taeni – Executive Master Trainer

Level 2/200 Creek Street, Brisbane, 4000

www.byourbest.com.au