You were the epitome of fitness: your speed matchless, your stamina rock solid, and those muscles were the admiration of any gym you walked into. And then came the injury.
Injuries heal; or most of them do. But even after you’ve recovered, your post-injury body is not the same as it was before you took the hit. Your muscles are out of training; they’ve forgotten how to do the simplest routines that used to be second nature. Your nerve endings are raw. And more likely than not you’re saddled by a list of injunctions from your doctor as well; a list of injunctions meant to help protect the fragile just-barely-healed injury site and keep you from landing back in the hospital again.
Just because you’re not where you’d like to be is no reason to skip the gym. In fact, intentional exercise is more crucial than ever when you’re post injury or have specific problem areas. But a simple membership a fitness center might not help you much. What you need is a program that takes into account your new weaknesses and works around them, targeting them in a careful and methodical way that eliminates stress and eventually brings you where you want to be; ready to engage in any mainstream training program. That’s what our post rehabilitative services are for. We meet you where you are, and help you get to where you want to be.
Pre-rehabilitative services are also targeted exercise sessions mean to help you overcome physical limitations, but these are typically ordered before you go into an elective surgery or other medical procedure. We can help you gain a full range of motion or prepare your body for the stress of your upcoming procedure. If you go in strong, you’ll come out strong, and recovery will be a breeze.
Would You Fit in a Post Rehab Program?
Enrolling in post rehabilitative services at Transform Fitness Personal Training will give you access to a tailor made program designed with your special needs and personal limitations in mind. These services are especially helpful for those:
- Who have recently sustained an injury and would like to get back to their former fitness levels.
- Who have recently undergone any kind of surgery or medical procedure that affects their skeletal or muscular integrity.
- Who have chronic medical issues (for example, arthritis or a gimpy leg) which restrict their movements or stamina.
That’s not all, of course. Our post rehab services are also ideal for postpartum women; while you worked on making a new baby human, your core muscles were taking a beating, and now is the perfect time to remind them what they were meant to be. Post rehab services can also be very beneficial to the very young or very old, or for those to whom the doctor recommended ‘low impact’ exercise routines. In fact, they’re pretty much ideal for anyone who’s just come out of an unpleasant medical adventure or are dealing with specific circumstances that make standard exercise regimes impractical, unsafe, or simply impossible.
Why a Traditional Exercise Regime is a Bad Idea Post Injury
Exercises geared toward your particular disability or injury probably sound pretty good about now. But what’s wrong with just enrolling in a regular fitness program? Sure, it might hurt, but pain=gain, so surely you could just grit your teeth and bear it? If you were a little slower or a little less agile than the others in the room, surely that would be understood!
You’ve taught yourself to move forward no matter what; to stick with it even when you feel like giving up, and to push yourself harder than you want to. Those are all good traits, and they’ve made you successful time and time again.
But there’s good pain and bad pain, and the pain you’d be facing while engaging in the wrong kind of exercise post injury would be, to put it simply, bad pain. Your muscles or skeletal system is fragile at the moment, and to engage in non-targeted, inappropriate exercises could mean you’d break things could never repair themselves. There’s a certain limit to which you can stretch your muscles: when you go past that, your hard work is only counterproductive. Schedule yourself a pre or post rehab session and learn exercises that can slowly build up your muscles again, not knock them all flat in a single blow.
There will come a time when you can push yourself to the limit again, and the care you take of your body now will determine how far away that time is.
What Happens During a Post Rehab Session
If you’re not directly attacking your problem areas during a post rehab session, what exactly are you doing? A key part of your post rehab session will be working on strengthening your secondary muscles—the muscles that can provide the extra support your problem area needs. Your trainer will also walk you through gentle, non-aggressive ways you can get your problem area back in on the action. Through the whole session, you’ll be training your muscles to work together in a smooth, concerted way.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you won’t be ready to be doing intense strength training or a while, but the ultimate goal is muscles that have learned to work together again and a body that is ready to go forward full steam, making that injury a closed chapter in your past.
Frequently Asked Questions on Pre- and Post Rehabilitative Services
Here are some frequently asked questions on our Pre and Post Rehabilitative Services at Transformation Fitness in Roseville. If you have your own questions that aren’t answered here, feel free to call us up or drop us a message and we’ll be happy to discuss them with you.
Do I really need that pre-rehab session?
Maybe your doctor ordered a series of pre-rehab sessions for you in advance of a scheduled surgery and you’re not sure it’s really worth it. Do you need to do pre-rehab? In one word—no. But you’d be short changing yourself if you skipped them; and do you really want to play games with your own recovery? Research on arthritis patients showed that those who participated in six weeks of pre-rehab training reduced their need of inpatient post rehabilitation by 73 percent, and enjoyed much smoother recoveries.
Can post rehab services help me as I recover from a stroke?
Yes. Post rehab exercise can help strengthen your weakened muscles and give you renewed strength and flexibility following a stroke. If you’ve lost function or mobility of some part of your body your post rehabilitative sessions can also help you work around those disabilities and shore up your weaknesses with other strength.
I’ve just had a baby. When should I start my post rehab sessions?
Most doctors recommend that you wait six weeks before starting exercise. Your body needs this initial time for rest and repair.
Will my post rehab sessions help me with pain management after surgery?
While exercise and physical therapy is not a magic pill to eliminate pain, your post rehab sessions are likely to reduce your pain levels by improving muscle and joint function and decreasing stressors.
Could doing post rehab exercise make my condition worse?
Your post rehab therapy plan is carefully designed to support your recovery, and though some exercises may be uncomfortable we’ve taken care to make sure that there will be no undue stress on your injury site. Do share with us if at any point you feel as if your pain level is elevated or something is going wrong.
What is the key to effective rehabilitation post injury?
Fitness is all about sticking to your goals and being persistent even when you don’t feel like you’re getting anywhere. Post injury fitness is no different; but here you have to couple that persistence with an extra dose of patience and keep on chugging on bit by bit till you finally get over the hill. It will get easier!