Our Services

Functional Rehabilitation & Exercise Therapy

What is functional rehabilitation and exercise therapy?

A key part of every examination here at Active Health Solutions is observing how a patient moves and functions. Improper movement patterns, or movement dysfunctions, are often the key contributor to pain syndromes and poor performance.  When our bodies do not move correctly, certain joints and muscles become overloaded.  At first, our bodies can compensate and adapt to the increased load.  However, eventually the movement dysfunctions overload the muscles and joints and cause pain and injuries.  For example, many people squat improperly, whether it be during a workout or just squatting to sit on the couch.  

Squatting improperly can overload the knees, hips and lower back and eventually cause pain.  During our examination, the doctors at Active Health Solutions try to identify the movement dysfunction.  The doctors may watch you squat, along with other movements such as walking, reaching, jumping, lunging, pressing, breathing, opening your mouth or various other movements that may be critical to your life or sport.   Once a faulty pattern is found, separate tests will be used to confirm the reason behind the improper movements.  Is your arm reach dysfunctional because of poor shoulder stability or overactive chest muscles?  By giving patients proper exercises to treat the dysfunction, proper movement can be restored which will lead to pain relief and improved performance.  

 

What is it used for?

Functional rehabilitation and exercise therapy is used for almost every single condition in our office.  Anything from headaches to low back pain to plantar fasciitis can benefit from this therapy.  This is because almost every injury to due to overuse or improper movement.  It is also extremely important in improving performance and/or decreasing pain during athletic activities.  Moving correctly during an athletic event is often the difference between a great performance and an “OK” performance.  It is also the difference between having a long career of playing basketball on the weekend and getting injured every time you play.  Our office sees every type of athlete, from high school to professional athletes and from the “weekend warrior” to those who just want to play on the floor with their kids or grandkids.