Rehab! Where’s the magic?
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First off, this post is not to say that specific rehab exercises aren’t needed. They are in certain circumstances. This post is about when people promote specific exercises as rehab magic.
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Spoiler alert: There is no rehab magic.
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For many of our aches and pains, there’s nothing special that we need to do. The simplest and often most effective approach is to reduce the intensity and volume of the aggravating movement, change the tempo, reduce the range of motion or modify the exercise. This allows you to still perform the specific exercises and get a great workout while letting the sensitive area calm down.
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We often make rehab more complicated than it needs to be. If you can still comfortably squat 60% of your max without aggravating the painful area, what are body weight bridges really going to do for you? They may be appropriate if that’s all you can do that doesn’t aggravate the pain but there’s nothing magic about them to heal your injury or fix your pain.
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But Ryan, my favorite IG person did bridges and they fixed their pain.
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When I see posts like this, I always think “Is that REALLY what happened?”
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Generally, no. They did what I mentioned above. They reduce volume and intensity, changed tempo or range of motion or the exercise. They let the area calm down and started where they could which may be bridges or may be lighter squats (or whatever the offending exercise is) and built up from there.
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The rehab process can be simple and doesn’t need to involve anything other than what you already do, just modified.
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Comment below or DM me with rehab issues that you are currently experiencing.
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This is not medical advice. Seek out a qualified healthcare practitioner if you have questions or concerns.