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Writer's picturekatieperronedpt

Why Do I Need to Do “Boring” Exercises for My Physical Therapy Program?

TLDR: We are building up the foundation and getting your body moving correctly again so we can get you doing the more exciting and difficult movements!


When people first start off with PT, many times the types of exercises that are prescribed by your PT can seem “simple” or “boring” to many people. If you are somebody who is active especially and are used to lifting heavy weights or running or biking or anything that is generally speaking, harder to do and requires more strength, when I tell you to do a basic exercise and movement, you might think “this is pointless”. I get that!


The goal of these basic exercises is to get you going. It helps us to get your muscles firing and engaging the way that they are supposed to so that as we build up intensity and frequency of exercises we don’t run into any unexpected issues or complications with the muscles we are working with.


If you try to jump right back to what you were doing before you got injured or had pain or had surgery, without building up the foundational pieces of it again, you are more likely to end up with compensatory mechanisms in other areas of your body that are helping to make up for what the injured area is lacking. In order to avoid that, and actually allow the area that was affected to function the way it is supposed to, we start small. We start with isometrics and get that muscle just firing in the correct pattern it is supposed to. Then we keep going from there. We progress the type of muscle contraction we are using to strengthen, then we continue to progress the resistance, intensity, and frequency of the exercise to keep building up more strength.


If your goal is to get back to heavy deadlifts and you had a hamstring injury, you will start at the basics to get that hamstring firing the way it needs to so that when you do get back to heavy deadlifts (AND YOU WILL GET BACK!) you have the appropriate strength, mobility, and confidence to do the movement, with less chance for re-injury!


So I get it! The initial exercises are not super exciting, especially when you are used to more dynamic and difficult movements! But those initial movements are going to be what gets you back to those movements you love, with less risk of injuring yourself again! So they are necessary - but it doesn’t mean you will have to do them forever either! Stay tuned to learn more about whether you need to do your PT exercises forever or not!


As always, if you have any questions or need help with an injury or pain you can email me at livewithoutlimitspt@gmail.com and give us a follow on Instagram by clicking the link below!





Thanks for being here!


  • Dr. Katie

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