Exercise Rehabilitation

Pain is a common barrier for people to engage in physical activity. It can prevent people from being active, working, or feeling safe to move in their everyday life.

Often people lose the confidence to engage in activities that provoke pain which impacts on their ability to do the things in life that they value. For many people with pain, exercise and movement can become fearful leading to activity avoidance.

Current research tells us that avoidance of movement and activity can make us weak, vulnerable and disabled, while regular exercise helps to reduce pain, disability, pain recurrence and is important for the health of the muscles, joints, nerves and spine. Increasingly for many people their lifestyle is leaving them at risk of many chronic health conditions such as back pain, arthritis, low bone density, loss of balance and coordination, fatigue, poor sleep and cardiovascular disease, respiratory problems, incontinence, some cancers and lower mental health.

Exercise rehabilitation can help.

There is good evidence available showing that engaging in regular exercise and physical activity can help all these conditions and more. Exercise is actually one of the only ‘treatments’ that is consistently recommended across multiple clinical guidelines for many health conditions.

Moving and exercising can however exacerbate the symptoms of many of these conditions, often creating a barrier to engage in physical activity, and for many leading to fear of movement.

When is Exercise Rehabilitation needed?

Exercise and physical activity are one of the most important things a person can do for their health. Exercise rehabilitation is beneficial for people that are deconditioned following an injury, disuse or due to a sedentary lifestyle, or when pain is provoked by, or acts a barrier for people to engage in normal movement, activities of daily living, work and or physical activity.

Pain is a common barrier for people to engage in physical activity, be active, return to work, or simply feel safe to move in everyday life. This can result in people losing confidence to engage in pain provoking activities, impacting on their ability to do the things in life that they value. For many people with pain, exercise and movement can become scary, leading to activity avoidance. However, research tells us that avoidance of movement and activity can make us weak, vulnerable and disabled, while regular exercise helps to reduce pain, disability, pain recurrence and is important for the health of the muscles, joints, nerves and spine.

Furthermore, exercise rehabilitation can also help people with incontinence, poor balance and coordination, chronic fatigue, low bone density and poor general and mental health problems.