Let’s be honest, when it comes to staying healthy, exercising is a must, and strength training is one of the best kinds of exercise out there but it is often ignored- well, except when your Physical Therapist already prescribes it to you. One fact that people don’t know is that strength training is a valuable component of fitness and injury rehabilitation.
Strength and Conditioning is one of the approaches to sports training that usually combines strength training, aerobic conditioning, speed and agility training, and sport-specific training.
Benefits of Strength Training
Strength training is more efficient and easier than you think. It has a more lasting benefit to a patient than what we people realize and it’s permanently improved muscle cells.
Strength training is safe and precise and is aided with machines to get that fitness goal while not aggravating the present injury or risking new ones. Strength training is a great tool for “load management” in injury rehab.
Strength training is very beneficial for general fitness, health, and weight loss than most people think. Other trainers sometimes replace “cardio” workouts with strength training. Why? Because cardio workout can be great, however, it’s repetitive and time-consuming. Not to mention, more prone to strain injuries.
Another benefit of strength training is, well,blowing off your steam. It Lowers load and higher reps and moves briskly from one exercise to the next. Many patients actually say that it’s a great way to let out those frustrations. Exercises stimulate a reaction to a stressful situation or feeling and it triggers the relaxation and recovery mode that follows.
The goal of strength training is to improve the musculoskeletal strength of all ages while exposing patients to a variety of safe, effective, and fun training methods, especially if the PT is dealing with kids.
One thing that Physical PhysicalTherapy should consider is people have unique responses to the same training stimulus, due to individual characteristics such as age, gender, body size and shape, and past injuries. This is why training should be adjusted to the individual’s characteristics and needs.
When it comes to progression, Overloading should occur at an optimal level and time frame to maximise performance. Overloading too quickly may lead to poor technique or injury, while very slow overloading may result in little or no improvements.
Now, there are some patients who also do strength training and conditioning at home. But always make sure that your Physical Therapist knows about it. Especially now that we have a pandemic going on it’s becoming more common to do some home exercises. However, these routines are practiced first with the Physical Therapist. With practice comes familiarity, and everything has a plan and is being monitored or taken note of for progress.
When I say take note, it includes your pain level. Physical Therapists advise their patients to try using the 0-10 scale, with 0 being no pain at all and 10 being the worst pain of your life. Decide where you are at every day and record it on a piece of paper, or in that calendar appointment you made. Then dedicate one week to being 100% compliant with doing your exercises. Watch how your pain level changes. Go for two weeks of compliance. Let your own response to the work serve as motivation to keep doing them.
Individualized strength training and conditioning sessions allow for more specific concentration on what the patient specifically needs to improve upon to get stronger, more powerful, and improve speed/quickness and agility. By addressing the requisite areas of muscle control, strength, and flexibility, it can also reduce the likelihood of an injury occurring. So if you’re interested to know more about this technique, consult with your Physical Therapy.