Physiotherapists learn a real-world approach to rehabilitation is best.
Lets imagine your arm is broken. Or was, but now its healing. You go see a physio to help your recovery. Typically, a physiotherapist will issue you with a set of exercises to follow, usually 10-20 reps, 3 times a day of everything, forever. For most of us these exercises involve moving in ways that aren’t like anything we would normally ask our bodies to do and rarely is there any follow up change the exercises as we get stronger.
But the underlying logic seems straightforward enough: Muscles that have been weakened while the bone was healing because they weren’t being used are selectively strengthened by making movements again. Besides, the physiotherapist is an expert, right? They have the uniform and everything.
Except that it seems exercise programmes don’t do much good for a lot of people. A 2017 review of the evidence found no conclusive support that typical physiotherapy exercise programmes helped people get back to using their arm normally following a fracture [1]. A year before a controlled trial found no additional benefit of exercise programme over advice alone in a group of 33 adults with forearmed fractures [2]. That physiotherapist may know a lot about muscles and bones, but do they know anything about you? Or what your body needs to achieve?
More evidence, from a 2021 study, found that doing the things you normally do is way more effective than the classic approach of stretching and exercise for people recovering from upper arm fractures [3]. At this point is there any room left for therapists that churn out the ‘3 sets of 10 model’ for everyone? All the findings and, let’s face it, common sense show that recovery works best when it is targeted at real-world activities and people are treated as individuals with support to get on with the things that matter to them.
With Bloom, therapies always have and always be tailored to what you want to do and how you want to do it. So if you need support to get back to a favourite sport, recover from injury or illness, manage pain or improve fitness, you are at the heart of everything we do. We spend time getting to know you and constantly adapt our approach as you progress and respond to new challenges. Our sessions include massage, mobilisation, mindful movement, breath work, education and reflection.
It seems that this message is starting to be understood by our profession, with campaigns from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) aimed at encouraging its membership to think about people’s real lives when recommending fitness and rehab programmes [4]. If you are looking for a more effective approach to physical therapy get in touch on contact@bloomholistichealth.co.uk and find out more.
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[1] Bruder, A., Shields, N., Dodd, K. and Taylor, N., 2017. Prescribed exercise programs may not be effective in reducing impairments and improving activity during upper limb fracture rehabilitation: a systematic review. Journal of Physiotherapy, 63(4), pp.205-220.
[2] Bruder, A., Shields, N., Dodd, K., Hau, R. and Taylor, N., 2016. A progressive exercise and structured advice program does not improve activity more than structured advice alone following a distal radial fracture: a multi-centre, randomised trial. Journal of Physiotherapy, 62(3), pp.145-152.
[3] Bruder, A., Shields, N., Dodd, K. and Taylor, N., 2017. Prescribed exercise programs may not be effective in reducing impairments and improving activity during upper limb fracture rehabilitation: a systematic review. Journal of Physiotherapy, 63(4), pp.205-220.
[4] https://www.csp.org.uk/campaigns-influencing/campaigns/stronger-my-way