Rehabilitation involves the prescription of specific stretching, strength, stability and proprioception (balance) exercises, to promote full healing from injury and to help avoid further injuries in the future.
It needs to be specific to the individual and must encompass their goals and requirements for returning to normal full function, whether that is going back to work, playing with the kids or taking part in sport at an amateur or professional level.
After injury if insufficient rehabilitation is undertaken the body will compensate for the loss of strength or flexibility that occurs, and underlying issues such as muscle tightness or imbalance will remain. These compensations may lead to re-injury at the initial site or secondary problems in other areas of the body.
It is important to remember that to provide the appropriate level of safe rehabilitation the practitioner must have a solid understanding of the underlying mechanisms of injury, the anatomy, physiology and biomechanics of the body and the healing processes that occur during recovery.
Our Osteopaths are trained to examine and treat the body from a global and holistic perspective, this enables us to identify possible imbalances, which may occur due to injury. In addition we all have extensive training and experience of rehabilitation exercise prescription for sports and spinal injuries.
You will often be prescribed some basic rehabilitation exercises during the early phases of your treatment with us and these may be sufficient depending on the condition. However it is sometimes necessary to continue and progress these exercises, even after you are symptom free.
Depending on your goals you may require sports specific rehabilitation drills with the idea being that when you return to your chosen activity your body is better conditioned than prior to the injury.
Examples of the rehabilitation programs we provide include:
Sometimes the period of rehabilitation is relatively short or it may last for several months depending on the severity of the problem, for instance rehabilitation following anterior-cruciate ligament surgery takes approximately 6-9 months.
If you require any further information regarding how osteopathy may be beneficial for you please do not hesitate to contact us