Rehabilitation exercises are crucial to a fast and effective recovery after an injury. Immediately after an injury, whether it's a work injury, auto injury, or sports injury, many people are required to get lots of rest and keep the injured area still to allow it time to heal.
While this is often a necessary part of recovery, it can leave the body with less muscle and bone mass, making it weaker. Then, once the initial part of this resting phase of recovery is complete, people find that they don’t have the same strength and function as they had due to the loss of muscle and bone mass. This is where rehabilitation exercises come into play.
Below we discuss what rehabilitation exercises are, what they involve, the benefits of rehabilitation strengthening exercises, and the importance of a customized home therapy rehabilitation routine.
What are rehabilitation strengthening exercises?
Recovery looks different for everybody and depends on the type of injury, the severity, and treatment. If you had an injury that required you to immobilize the area for a long period of time during the initial healing phase, you may find that afterward, it’s more difficult to perform your daily tasks or use your body as well as you would have before the injury.
Rehabilitation exercises aim to restore strength and range of motion during recovery. They target specific muscles around the injury that have grown weaker and smaller due to lack of use.
What are the benefits of rehabilitation strengthening exercises for recovery?
Although exercise may be unappealing after suffering from an injury, it is a crucial part of the recovery process. Rehabilitation strengthening exercises are the best way to get your body moving again to build back muscles and improve your range of motion.
These are some of the benefits of rehabilitation strengthening exercises for recovery:
Encourages healing. Rehabilitation exercises increase blood flow and circulation to the body and the injured area, which helps the body heal faster. In addition, these exercises promote appropriate movements that will help to avoid any further injury. Rehabilitation exercise also decreases inflammation and may prevent other complications like scarring which can impede movement and recovery.
Reduces chronic pain. Improper healing that is unaided by rehabilitation exercise may result in incomplete healing and chronic pain. Chronic pain can happen because of improper healing of tendons, ligaments, and muscles, leaving you with less function. Rehabilitation exercises can help to reduce pain and fight inflammation, all while restoring mobility and strength to the body.
Improves quality of life. If you can’t move as well as you did before an injury, then you probably have a lower quality of life as a result. Having difficulty enjoying the hobbies you had, or even walking or carrying grocery bags can make life much more difficult and less enjoyable, not to mention painful. Rehabilitation exercises after an injury will give you the best chance to build strength and range of motion over time.
Improves recovery after surgery. Rehabilitation strengthening exercises will help you recover better and faster after surgery. In addition, they will reduce your pain from your injury, allowing you to rely less on pain medication.
Lasting benefits. Rehabilitation strengthening exercises have lasting benefits. This means that you may see permanent improvements in your muscles if you stick to a routine.
Great for your health. Rehabilitation exercises aren’t just great for your injury, but they’re great for your health too. Many of them involve cardio workouts, which are good for your heart. They can help you improve your overall health and fitness and even help you to lose weight.
Sharpens your mind. According to the Mayo Clinic, some studies point to the idea that rehabilitation exercises your learning and thinking skills, especially for older adults.
What are the types of rehabilitation strengthening exercises?
There are four main types of rehabilitation strengthening exercises. Each one plays a specific part in your recovery process. The four types include the following:
Strength exercises: Strength exercises help you to build muscle mass in specific muscle groups. It will help specific muscle groups grow stronger and exert more force. It is also called resistance exercise. Examples of strength exercises include push-ups, pull-ups, and arm curls.
Endurance exercises: Endurance exercises target your cardiovascular system and include aerobic and cardio exercises. Examples of endurance exercises include jogging, swimming, biking, and power walking.
Balance exercises: After an injury, you may find that not only is your strength and range of motion affected, but your coordination as well. Balance exercises are aimed at improving coordination after an injury. This is especially important because they will reduce your chance of falling over as a result of poor coordination from an injury. Examples of balance exercises include tai chi, standing on one foot, and heel-toe walking.
Flexibility exercises: Flexibility exercises increase your flexibility to improve your range of motion and eliminate stiffness. They often include stretching. Examples of stretching exercises are back stretches, ankle stretches, and hamstring stretches.
The importance of a customized rehabilitation routine patients can work on at home during recovery
Although rehabilitation exercises are often done with a professional, like one of our chiropractors here at Accident Care Chiropractic, it is essential that patients continue to do their exercises while at home. Exercises should be done regularly, week after week during recovery, to aid healing, improve range of motion, promote strengthening, and reduce pain.
Skipping exercises by not doing the rehabilitation routine at home can seriously impede the rehabilitation process of recovery. Therefore, listen to your chiropractor or expert who has provided you with a routine targeted at your specific issues, and stick to it exactly. This will ensure that the process is as fast as possible and you don’t develop any chronic issues.
Also, rehabilitation exercises don’t require as much time and aren’t as hard as many people expect them to be. A half-hour exercise session every day or every other day may be enough for some people.
Book Your Rehabilitation Exercise Sessions at Accident Care Chiropractic
If you’re recovering from an auto accident injury or surgery and are worried that your strength or range of motion has suffered, the best thing you can do is seek help from experts. At Accident Care Chiropractic, we can provide you with an expert chiropractor that can diagnose the problems you’re experiencing as a result of the injury.
Then, they will provide you with the best treatment along with a customized rehabilitation routine that is designed to target specific muscle groups, ligaments, and tendons to speed up your recovery, reduce pain, strengthen weak muscles, and improve your range of motion.
Visit Accident Care Chiropractic for Rehabilitation Exercise
So if you have an injury, don’t wait until you start to develop chronic pain, and definitely don’t try to do it yourself.
Get professional help and reach out to Accident Care Chiropractic today!
