When your body isn’t functioning how it was designed to, Dr. Sarah Chung at Active Chiropractic Therapy in Temple Hills, MD offers therapeutic exercise and other effective techniques to help you achieve optimal health and healing.
Guide to Therapeutic Exercise in Chiropractic Care
When you visit a chiropractor, you’ll likely be given some exercises or stretches that you can do at home. These are called therapeutic exercises. Why exactly are these recommended and what benefits do they provide? Dr. Chung and the team at Active Chiropractic Therapy in Temple Hills, MD explain below.
Purpose and Benefits of Therapeutic Exercises
Therapeutic exercises aren’t like a regular workout program to get fit. Instead, they are movements that target specific areas of the body to correct specific problems. That’s why they are also referred to as “corrective exercises.”
Consider this: You break an ankle and it’s put into a cast to heal. Once the cast comes off, your ankle will be weak. If you don’t work to strengthen it, it will remain weak and leave you susceptible to another break. Corrective exercises – in this case – would specifically target the ankle to ensure strength, flexibility, and a proper range of motion.
Healing a broken ankle is just one example of how therapeutic exercises can be beneficial. However, they are essential for addressing issues in your physical function due to a variety of issues, as they provide the following:
- Joint mobilization
- Better coordination, balance, and flexibility
- Improved range of motion and mobility
- Increased circulation of blood and healing nutrients
- Reduction in tension and inflammation of muscles, fascia, and tendons
All of this is accomplished through completely natural means, as they utilize the body’s own healing abilities.
Conditions Therapeutic Exercise Can Treat
While therapeutic exercises are definitely useful for broken bones, they are recommended in many treatment plans. In fact, most conditions that lead you to a chiropractor can benefit from therapeutic exercises. These include but are not limited to:
- Posture issues
- Herniated discs
- Compressed nerves
- Sports, work, or auto injuries
- Neck, back, or shoulder pain
- Knee or hip pain
- Muscle tension and spasms
- Post-operative care
- Arthritis
- Fibromyalgia
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
If you’re suffering from any injury or condition that causes pain or impacts your ability to function properly, Dr. Chung at Active Chiropractic Therapy in Temple Hills, MD is licensed in physical therapy. Call (301) 702-PAIN (7246) or text (301) 898-6296 to schedule an appointment for your personalized chiropractic care plan with therapeutic exercise today.
Therapeutic exercises are specific exercises meant for correcting specific problems. Depending the matter of your concern, your chiropractor may give you a list
of exercises to perform to reduce discomfort. The focus of therapeutic exercise is to regain flexibility, strength, and endurance related to specific physical problems.
Therapeutic exercise aims to improve, restore, and prevent loss of physical function. It can also improve a patient’s overall health, fitness, and sense of well-being.
Additional objectives of Therapeutic exercise include:
- Increasing mobility
- Releasing contracted muscles, tendons, and fascia
- Mobilizing joints
- Improving circulation
- Improving respiratory capacity
- Improving coordination
- Reducing rigidity
- Improving balance
Therapeutic exercises are classified into three major categories:
- Endurance training
- Resistance training
- Flexibility training
No matter what type of exercise is prescribed to remedy a patient’s specific condition, the final goal of rehabilitation is to acquire a maximum level of physical fitness, without the use of more invasive methods. Therapeutic exercise can be performed at home, and gives you the power to improve your quality of life.
