Injury Post-Rehabilitation: When Physical Therapy is Not Enough

It is pretty commonly understood after a major injury it is appropriate to see a physical therapist for follow-up.  The physical therapist's job is to get you back to doing "normal activity."  "Normal activity" is basically walking, maybe some light jogging, house work and a little yard work.  If you are going to be doing activity beyond those things I highly recommend Post Rehabilitation.

What is Post Rehabilitation?  Post Rahab is getting you back to normal activity for you!  That might include running, sprinting, sports, or other activities considered moderate to intense.  Generally physical therapy is going to focus primarily on the injury site, while post-rehab is going to focus on the whole body.  For example, if a person suffers an Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tear the Physical Therapist is going to work primarily on range of motion activities, hamstring and Quad specific activities and some balance activity, almost exclusively for the affected leg.  The PT mostly wants to get that person moving normally again.

Post Rehab takes it to the next level.  When I administer a post rehab program for an ACL injury I generally do the following:

• Stability exercises for the ankle, knee and hip to address joint alignment on both legs.
• A hamstring exercise to continue to protect the ACL.
• An exercise to work on Glute (butt) and hamstring recruitment during squatting motions.  One of the things that can contribute to ACL injuries is high quadriceps dominance over the hamstring and glute.  The more even in strength the three muscle groups are, the less likely there will be a serious knee injury.
• One or two core strength exercises.
• A pushing or chest exercise to start to regain upper body strength.
• A pulling exercise, maybe two depending on upper body balance.
• And a whole body exercise to get everything working together again and firing in proper sequences.

The client who is serious about post-rehabilitation is less likely to re-injure, less likely to get an additional injury due to over use or overcompensation and more likely to be overall stronger and more stable.  For more information on post-rehabilitation programs visit www.canyonptandf.com or contact tom@canyonptandf.com