Osteopathy & Exercise Rehabilitation – Return to Activities

Osteopathy and Exercise Rehabilitation –

How we can help get you back to activities that make you happy!!

When you come to see an Osteopath for your aches and pains, whether it be lower back pain, neck pain, headaches, migraines, knee pain, postural complaints, or any other musculoskeletal issue, part of our treatment approach will be getting you back to moving and feeling better!

As Osteopaths, we look at how your body functions and moves as a “whole unit”. Our treatment and management to your overall health encompasses taking all of this into account. For example, your lower back and upper back are classified as separate areas, as your arms and legs and neck are – obviously! But having your body work in unison, with ease and with minimal or no pain is what we are all trying to achieve.

Part of an Osteopathic consultation and treatment will involve hands on manual therapy. But what most people don’t realize until they have seen us, is that we are also experienced in providing advice in exercise prescription and rehabilitation.  Oh… I hear a sigh of, oh no, I need to do exercise or rehab – Yuk! Well here are some tips on how we work together to make the outcome fun, engaging, easy and results driven – giving you the best, quickest and optimal outcome for your condition…!

Our top tips for doing rehab include:

• Performing activities that you actually want to do really helps motivate you to perform the tasks!
• Setting achievable goals with measurable and noticeable outcomes,
• Making tasks and activities meaningful for you and your condition,
• Educating you on why you are doing the exercises you are,
• Educating you where you should be feeling the exercises and where you shouldn’t be feeling the exercises! This is really important!!
• Setting a realistic number of exercises and repetitions and then progressively increasing these at a manageable rate
• Setting reminders around daily tasks such as teeth brushing, making dinner, getting changed or while watching TV. Also use of alarms and sticky notes!
• Making it fun with technology, such as use of music, tv, to keep you more engaged and make the time go quicker once you have a good understanding what it is you should be doing,
• Reassessment by your Osteopath, trainer or Doctor to help highlight progress and reaffirm your continuation, modification and progression of activities,
• Education about pain and how some pain is normal and when it may not be – how to continue or seek further advice

A great rehab program will have a balance of exercises that:

• Fits with YOUR work and family life – and we create this together to help achieve measurable results,
• Has as few exercises as possible with the best benefit possible to you!
• Minimal or very accessible and inexpensive tools/equipment,
• Education and understanding
  • why you’re doing the exercise,
  • what the exercise is targeting,
  • where the exercise should be felt and
  • giving confidence in the execution and performance,
• Easily progressed or regressed – make it achievable and flexible for you,
• Engage movements and exercises that you enjoy doing and feel the benefit from doing,
• Can be done anywhere,
• Based on scientific evidence that it works hence you will see results after a short amount of time!!
• Small achievable tasks are set with reward provided – ie, less or no pain, more movement and feeling better overall…. Now wouldn’t that be great!!

So don’t let exercise rehab put you off – we will do it together!

If you are looking for an osteopath in South Melbourne, come and see us for a thorough and complete diagnosis, treatment and management of your musculoskeletal aches and pains.