We prescribe exercise for every patient at Vital Wellness Center. Regardless of pain or mobility issues, there is always some form of movement that patients can perform. Many patients tell our chiropractor, Dr. Foss, that they’re personalized therapeutic exercise program makes them feel better not only physically, but mentally as well. It is our goal that the following information helps our existing and future patients gain a better understanding of building a chiropractic custom therapeutic exercise plan and the benefits of following it.
What Are Therapeutic Exercises
Therapeutic exercises are postures, stretches, or motions designed to help our patients regain natural, pain-free movement. Although exercise programs are customized for each individual patient, they normally include exercises from the three categories listed below:
- Flexibility exercises which include specific still-position and movement stretching
- Strength and stamina-building exercises, for example, weightlifting or walking
- Coordination, balance, and mobility exercises to help the body move efficiently and harmoniously as a whole
All of these exercises are crucial to alleviating symptoms and maximizing fitness. The goal for every one of our patients is a healthy, agile body that is balanced and coordinated.
Chiropractic and Customized Therapeutic Exercises
Our chiropractor, Dr. Foss, understands the importance of balancing life’s demands, such as work and family. We want to make the best use of our patients’ time and effort with any interventions we recommend. As a result, we thoughtfully select exercises that will satisfy our patients’ needs and also accommodate their busy schedules.
Benefits of Therapeutic Exercise
Exercise has several physical, mental, and social health advantages. Among the most important are:
- Weight management
- Promoting restful sleep
- Increased energy
- Enhanced sex life
- Improved state of mind
- Building social relationships
- Decreasing the possibility of a fall, high blood pressure, stroke, type 2 diabetes, anxiety, depression, and numerous other health problems
Chiropractic knowledge in combination with exercise maximizes these benefits by focusing on the health of the nerves and spine. The brain and body can work together efficiently and effectively to produce positive changes in health when they are adequately functioning.
How Our Chiropractor Creates a Custom Exercise Plan
When patients first visit Vital Wellness Center, they are stunned by some of our questions. Inquiring about family and friends isn’t our way of obtaining more business. It’s about gaining knowledge regarding our patients’ social networks and support systems. In the case of therapeutic exercise, a strong social network can aid in patient compliance and enable them to experience the positive effects that movement can have on their lives.
We begin every chiropractic assessment with an in-depth consultation followed by a thorough physical examination. In order to create a custom therapeutic exercise plan that helps our patients reduce the risk of injury as they get stronger, we need to identify any medical issues that might be restricting their ability to move.
Functional movement screening is another key element of a chiropractic evaluation. When patients come to Vital Wellness Center, they don’t sit passively during their examination. Our chiropractor, Dr. Foss, analyzes each patient as they are walking, reaching, and performing various other movements. During this analysis, he assesses functional abilities such as range of motion, uniformity of movement, and coordination.
By performing functional movement screenings, we gain an understanding of how our patients accomplish basic movements that are frequent in everyday activities. This results in an accurate assessment of their performance level and enables us to customize a program that will gradually improve their functional fitness, making it easier for them to complete daily tasks. This also allows them to reap all the benefits of exercise as quickly and effectively as possible.
What a Typical Custom Therapeutic Exercise Plan Includes
Our exercise programs are intended to help enhance functional abilities. Because most of our younger patients don’t have issues carrying groceries from their car or doing household chores, they often wonder how this will benefit them. Our explanation is that we want more for them than just the bare minimum.
There is always room for improvement no matter what level of functioning our patients have. Those with higher levels of fitness receive more challenging exercises and objectives. Patients with conditions that limit mobility are given equally difficult objectives. However, the various exercises they are prescribed have been modified to prevent any injuries that would be more likely to occur due to their limitations.
Once we conduct a series of functional fitness tests, we are able to analyze the patient’s results for patterns. After identifying their strengths and weaknesses, we start creating a custom therapeutic exercise plan by pairing their areas of need with activities we know will produce results. We always research and ensure exercises or movements can safely provide benefits to our patients before they are offered to them.
We always consider patient safety. As a care provider, our main priority is to do no harm, which includes any exercise programs we recommend. Regardless of fitness level, we never make the assumption that patients can exercise without guidance or that we do not need to devise a fitness plan without considering patient safety.
Creating a list of activities and motions to avoid is as equally important as deciding what exercises to include. For instance, we have many patients who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, which is an autoimmune disease with periodic flares of symptoms that make certain movements extraordinarily painful. Vital Wellness Center patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis commonly have two different exercise plans. The first is for days when they are not having a flare, which challenges their fitness level to its maximum capacity. The second is for days when they are experiencing a flare-up and focuses on careful, nourishing movement that helps their immune system to balance itself.
Once we’ve determined a list of activities to avoid, we concentrate on developing a balanced plan of strength, flexibility, and coordination exercises. Our chiropractic expertise is crucial because we use our extensive knowledge of the neurological system to create a program that maximizes nerve, spine, and brain health. When the body’s master communication system is at its optimal performance, it generates dependable, efficient control over everything that occurs in the body.
Of course, exercise is ineffective if patients do not engage in it on a regular basis. For this reason, we value the input of our patients. When we develop a patient’s exercise plan, we review it with them and ask for their feedback. If they do not enjoy a particular exercise, we can offer them a variation of the movement we are recommending in order to accommodate their preferences.
Trying to manage multiple responsibilities is a problem for many of our patients. They have busy family and work schedules and may have a difficult time finding 20 or 30 minutes to perform a custom exercise plan every day. This is not an issue. We are able to design a plan in which they can exercise in ten or even five-minute spurts. This allows our patients to easily include chiropractic fitness into their daily routines.
We Can Create a Custom Exercise Plan for You
One of the highlights of our practice is watching our patients reap the benefits from a chiropractic custom therapeutic exercise plan. If you want to use chiropractic care to maximize the benefits of exercise, give Vital Wellness Center a call today. We’ll be happy to answer your questions or schedule an appointment for a chiropractic consultation.
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