Therapeutic Exercise

It’s easy to think of exercise as something we do with our muscles, but exercise can also help our body’s other systems. Area-specific exercises target breathing and circulation to help speed healing, improve blood flow, or lower stress on the body.

Every time you stand or sit, bones and muscles work in conjunction with one another to help you remain upright. Every time you stand, walk, sit, brush your teeth, cook a meal, or take care of your daily activities, you are testing your coordination between the muscular and skeletal systems in your body. Your ability to care for yourself or your loved ones depends on your ability to balance and coordinate your arms, legs, hands, and feet. That is why balance and coordination exercises are so important, especially after an injury or illness. If you cannot keep your balance or lose your coordination, you lose the ability to care for yourself.

Increasing power, endurance, and muscle strength are vital to good balance and stability, as well as bone and joint health. Resistance and endurance exercises are designed to increase muscle strength without injury.

These exercises are aimed at increasing the range of motion in your joints and soft tissues. This may be done through active, passive, or assisted stretching activities designed to help your joints move better, without pain.

Hours spent at desks, bending over keyboards, poor muscle tone, or simply poor posture habits can all lead to pain or injury. What you may not realize is that posture has a direct impact on muscle strength, balance, and risk of injury. Posture exercises are aimed at correcting poor posture, not just when you exercise, but also in your daily life activities to alleviate aches and pains.

Relaxation is part of therapeutic exercise? You bet! While it is important to work the muscles, joints, and soft tissues in the body, it is also important to help them relax. Pain relieving techniques including heat, cold, electrical stimulation, massage, or trigger point therapy, can all help the body relax, improve your sleep, lower your blood pressure, and keep you coming back for more exercise!