Why Your Physical Therapy Exercises Aren’t Working

As a kinesiologist, I see so many patients forget this one thing.

I came across a meme yesterday of someone drowning while swimming in knee-deep water. The caption read, “Why am I still in pain? I’m doing all my rehab exercises!”. Other text bubbles surrounded the image such as ‘sleeps 4 hours per night’, and ‘eats poorly and is chronically dehydrated’. The premise is that exercise is only a tiny piece of the rehab story, even when done consistently as prescribed.

It’s hard to argue that adherence to a rehab plan is a bad thing, but it can often mask the other areas of life that are being neglected. This can essentially cancel out the benefits of the efforts being made, often leaving individuals even more frustrated and confused than before

While I believe that we should never be insensitive or condemn those who are going through genuine struggles, these matters shouldn’t be swept under the rug either. Life is complex. It gets messy. To pretend that completing a simple exercise therapy program will heal years of chronic pain caused by various factors is wishful thinking.

The image of drowning in water is powerful one because we have the tools to learn how to swim but often don’t…