Have you ever seen or personally struggled with not being able to get off the floor unassisted or had to stop an activity you loved to do because you were afraid you were hurting your body more?
Did you have to quit playing a game due to an injury that was left untreated?
Think of active rehabilitation as one of the best treatment options and your own individualized and private training session with a licensed kinesiologist who is an expert in movement mechanics and injury rehabilitation.
However, you may want to have more detailed information about active rehab exercises, how they are done, who provides them and what the benefits are. We got you covered and answered all your questions in this article.
What Exactly is Active Rehabilitation?
Active Rehab are private individualized treatment sessions led by a registered kinesiologist to focus on body movement mechanics, proper stretching and recovery exercises as well as improving strength and muscle mass.
During an active rehab session, we first identify the body’s areas of weakness followed by teaching appropriate ways to exercise and stretch safely and effectively to build strength, flexibility and confidence.
The treatment sessions are corrective and focused on reducing symptoms of pain and risk of injury for those that want to improve the way they exercise and stretch.
The Active Rehabilitation Exercises
Active rehab exercises are individualized based. Every individual is different in their abilities, flexibility, strength and movement familiarity. Some examples of exercises prescribed at active rehab are:
- Core activation the proper way.
- Correcting squat form and balance.
- Learning to hip hinge and deadlift safely.
- Hip strengthening exercises for rehab of the hip, low back knee and ankle.
- Learning to use free weights and body weight as appropriate for individualized exercise goals.
- Incorporation of stretch based therapy for injury rehab.
- Learning the fundamental principles of rehab and injury prevention.
- Learning fundamentals of Pilates and incorporation of Pilates exercises if one is interested.
We meet you where you are at your fitness journey and injury rehab phase.
Our goal is to help take you to the next phase of your healing journey safely and be the guidance and support you need to improve your fitness and reach your wellness goals in a step by step process, while staying safe and injury free.
Who Provides Active Rehab?
Active Rehab is provided by Licensed and Registered Kinesiologists.
Kinesiologists have undergone a 4 year university bachelors degree and are experts in human movement mechanics and injury prevention. They are equipped to help identify your movement pattern issues and to help you learn to move more efficiently through your joints and build strength and flexibility the right way.
Who Can Benefit from Active Recovery?
Anybody can benefit from active rehab and active recovery.
Whether you are healing from an injury, working towards your next fitness goal or wanting to become more flexible to stronger, our kinesiologist can meet you where you are in your exercise journey and take you where you want to go in a safe, positive and friendly environment.
If you are worried that exercise will hurt you or not sure that you can do something, active rehab is the right choice for you.
Let us help you reach your fitness goals and empower you to become a better healthier version of yourself.
How Active Rehab Actually Helps to Recover?
Active rehabilitation believes in meeting patients where they are at. What they can do and feel comfortable doing.
Our kinesiologists are injury knowledgeable and are skilled at listening to your needs. They meet you where you are at and what you can do and set a goal and intention to help you get to where you want to be in life and with your fitness journey.
For some, it may be getting back to running, returning back to work or recovering from a car accident injury.
Whatever your goal is, we are here to help support you to become more functional and improve your movement mechanics to get back to doing the things you love to do.
Active vs. Passive Recovery
In the medical world, when we refer to active care, we are referring to treatment and care that uses the patient’s own movements and muscle recruitment. Passive recovery refers to therapies that do not involve the patient’s body movement.
A good example of a passive recovery is a massage where the patient is lying on the table and is not recruiting their muscles to create movement.
Both therapies are beneficial and necessary in different stages of healing and oftentimes, it is highly recommended that both therapies are done simultaneously as they have different therapeutic effectiveness.
For example, we recommend our patients to have massage therapy, chiropractic and active rehab together as both offer different therapeutic benefits but work to get you back to full function at a much faster rate.
Looking to Get Started?
If you are looking to learn to exercise more effectively and improve your flexibility, you have come to the right place.
These are some examples of people we have helped:
Patient #1
This lady presented to our office and her main complaint was inability to get herself upright and off the floor without help.
This was a concern for her as she could not do her stretches effectively as she was afraid of going down on the floor and she needed help from someone to get up or needed furniture close by for support.
Through active rehab, we helped improve her hip mobility and core stabilization. We taught her strategies to use to create balance and strength in her legs and arms.
We taught her how to generate power through her breath and leg strength. Our treatment approach significantly helped with her confidence, her balance and over a period of 3 months, she was able to get up from the floor unassisted. She was very happy.
Patient #2
This patient had hurt his lower back gardening. Gardening was his passion, however, he had become fearful that the lower back pain would have to force him to stop his garden.
Working with our kinesiologist and chiropractor, we were able to diagnose his pain and teach him stretches and exercises he could do at home to improve his low back flexibility and core strength.
The strategies we gave him helped him to be able to start working in the garden within 2 weeks and build up his tolerance without his lower back flaring up.
The patient is back to gardening and is using his learnt strategies and exercises everyday to garden safely and effectively.
Book your appointment with our Coquitlam registered kinesiologists by calling us at 604-917-0777.