Discover The Different Forms Of Therapeutic Exercise And How They Encourage Healing
By Coleen Torres
Injuries to the muscles and other soft tissues of the body often require a course of physical therapy in order for the patient to regain normal body movement. Therapeutic exercise is an important component in most physical therapy regimens and it can effectively aid in not only easing pain, but also restoring range of motion, balance, strength, and flexibility.
The physical therapist will evaluate the patient's condition by conducting an assessment of his or her ability to move, and taking a medical history. This information will be used to formulate a specific course of exercises which become progressively more challenging as the patient improves. Once the pain is overcome, the focus will be on restoring the body's strength, endurance, and flexibility.
Physical therapy exercises are classified according to the nature of the movement involved and the impact it has on the muscles and joints. Passive exercises help restore normal movement in joints and require little to no work from the muscles as the force is applied to them, either manually or from a continuous passive motion unit or similar mechanical device. In contrast, active exercise calls for muscular involvement, with or without assistance, in a manner which improves joint movement and neuromuscular control.
Other activities are prescribed to help patients regain strength and endurance in the muscles which have been injured. This is normally added to the program once the patient can safely perform basic flexibility and range-of-motion movements without help. Progressive resistance is added to the routine at a steady rate to gradually build back lost strength in the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones, which is the body's natural response.
Exercises for regaining strength are generally grouped as either static or dynamic. The former are those which do not involve joint movement, with the length of the muscle fibers remaining the same since the resistance and tension are equal, rather it is the angle they are performed at which makes the difference and helps the patient increase strength, so using varied angles in practice and holding each movement for several seconds is recommended.
Dynamic exercises imply movement on the part of the joints and muscles and may be further categorized into manual, variable-resistance, isokinetic, and isotonic movements. These types of activities result in the concentric and eccentric, or lengthening and shortening of muscles which generate force during movement. The repeated stretching of the muscle-tendon bundles increases tensile strength.
An isotonic movement is one that applies an external force to the muscle which alters the angle of the joint, lengthening the muscular fibers. Some common examples of this are many weight machines, free weights, and ankle weights. Training equipment for variable-resistance movements are built to impose correct joint alignment and apply resistance relative to force, or the therapist may do this manually as well, deliberately placing the muscles in range-of-motion extremes that will limit the force produced.
Isokinetic exercises are carried out with a fixed speed and equal muscle force and resistance. Machines to generate this type of movement deliver force to match the user's level of muscle resistance and often have adjustable settings in terms of concentric and eccentric actions with varying velocities.
The physical therapist will evaluate the patient's condition by conducting an assessment of his or her ability to move, and taking a medical history. This information will be used to formulate a specific course of exercises which become progressively more challenging as the patient improves. Once the pain is overcome, the focus will be on restoring the body's strength, endurance, and flexibility.
Physical therapy exercises are classified according to the nature of the movement involved and the impact it has on the muscles and joints. Passive exercises help restore normal movement in joints and require little to no work from the muscles as the force is applied to them, either manually or from a continuous passive motion unit or similar mechanical device. In contrast, active exercise calls for muscular involvement, with or without assistance, in a manner which improves joint movement and neuromuscular control.
Other activities are prescribed to help patients regain strength and endurance in the muscles which have been injured. This is normally added to the program once the patient can safely perform basic flexibility and range-of-motion movements without help. Progressive resistance is added to the routine at a steady rate to gradually build back lost strength in the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones, which is the body's natural response.
Exercises for regaining strength are generally grouped as either static or dynamic. The former are those which do not involve joint movement, with the length of the muscle fibers remaining the same since the resistance and tension are equal, rather it is the angle they are performed at which makes the difference and helps the patient increase strength, so using varied angles in practice and holding each movement for several seconds is recommended.
Dynamic exercises imply movement on the part of the joints and muscles and may be further categorized into manual, variable-resistance, isokinetic, and isotonic movements. These types of activities result in the concentric and eccentric, or lengthening and shortening of muscles which generate force during movement. The repeated stretching of the muscle-tendon bundles increases tensile strength.
An isotonic movement is one that applies an external force to the muscle which alters the angle of the joint, lengthening the muscular fibers. Some common examples of this are many weight machines, free weights, and ankle weights. Training equipment for variable-resistance movements are built to impose correct joint alignment and apply resistance relative to force, or the therapist may do this manually as well, deliberately placing the muscles in range-of-motion extremes that will limit the force produced.
Isokinetic exercises are carried out with a fixed speed and equal muscle force and resistance. Machines to generate this type of movement deliver force to match the user's level of muscle resistance and often have adjustable settings in terms of concentric and eccentric actions with varying velocities.
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