3 ways to optimize your patients home exercise program

Introduction

The goal of a home exercise program is to return your patient to their pre-injury status. For the ACL, that means increasing strength and mobility in the knee joint as well as full range of motion in the hip joint. In short: function! For that reason, it’s important to build an exercise program around these goals first and foremost with safety coming second. Below are some tips for how you can do this with your patients at home:

1. Monitor and progress the repetitions

On the surface, monitoring your patients’ repetitions may seem like a straightforward practice. But in reality, it can be quite complex. Consider this: For example, if you have a patient who is beginning ACL rehabilitation and they are able to do knee extensions for 3 sets of 15 repetitions before having to stop due to fatigue, should you increase their repetitions every time they come in? What about when they’ve reached 5 sets of 20 reps? How about when they can complete 6 sets of 15 reps? The answer depends on several factors.

First, you must consider how many times per week you want them to exercise their leg muscles and how long each session should last (this will be dependent upon your goals) as well as how far along in their stage of recovery they are at that point in time. If someone has just started ACL rehabilitation then doing one set of 10-15 repetitions every other day might be sufficient; however as soon as this person becomes more advanced then increasing their number or intensity is necessary so that progress continues being made towards reaching an eventual goal (e.g., returning back into sports).

2. Encourage bilateral activities with unilateral strength.

Encourage bilateral activities with unilateral strength.

It’s one thing to strengthen your limbs through exercise, but it’s another to progress beyond simple strengthening exercises and incorporate more functional movements into your routine. When we think of functional exercises, we tend to think of the specific activities that require us to move our body weight in order to complete them—for example: squats, dead lifts, pull ups and push ups. All of these exercises are important for strength development and improving performance in daily life; however they don’t necessarily involve balance or proprioception training as much as some other types of movement can do so.

For this reason, I recommend incorporating bilateral activities into your patient’s home exercise program whenever possible (e.g., walking lunges). These types of activities will help improve their balance while simultaneously challenging their core muscles at the same time! Unilateral exercises (which can be done using just one limb) should also be introduced early on in rehabilitation since they provide an opportunity for patients who may have impaired motor control or sensory perception on one side only due to stroke etc., get back into moving their bodies again without having any safety concerns about falling over onto their weaker side during movement tasks such as lunges/ramped up step downs

3. Check for asymmetry and progress accordingly

• Check for asymmetry.
• Progress accordingly.

If you are able to do more than one repetition, then you can progress to the next level of difficulty. If not, then you need to regress to a lower level of difficulty.

If it hurts, don’t do it! Focus on functional goals rather than numbers.

• If it hurts, don’t do it! Focus on functional goals rather than numbers.
• Don’t worry about what other people are doing and how fast they’re recovering.
• Keep your eyes on the prize—your recovery!

Build a program that addresses asymmetry and strength, endurance, power and proprioception deficits

Once you’ve determined the goals of your patients’ home exercise program, it’s time to build a program that addresses their asymmetry and strength, endurance, power and proprioception deficits.

One of the most important concepts in exercise programming is progression—building on previous success with each session. It doesn’t matter how much willpower or motivation an individual has; if the exercises are not progressive enough for their level of fitness, they will not make any significant gains. This concept applies to all areas of your patient’s training regardless of age or injury status.

Progression also means increasing intensity over time by increasing load (weight), reducing rest periods between sets or exercises, increasing distance traveled during a set or workout duration etc..

Another common theme in programming is adapting exercises based “on” the client rather than “to” them. When designing a training plan be sure to consider what types of activities they typically do outside the gym so that these can be incorporated into their routine without causing further injury or aggravating existing conditions

Increase the difficulty of exercises progressively to avoid injury, pain or plateaus in recovery.

• Progression is key to avoiding injury, pain or plateaus in recovery.
• You can progress by increasing repetitions, sets or resistance.

Consider unilateral, bilateral and core stabilization exercises when developing the program.

You should consider using unilateral, bilateral and core stabilization exercises when developing the program. Unilateral exercises, such as leg extensions, are good for developing strength and balance. Bilateral exercises such as leg presses are also effective in developing strength and endurance while core stabilization exercises, such as planks or side planks can improve core stability and strength.

Remember to account for asymmetry and strength, endurance, power and proprioception deficits when building your patients home exercise programs.

When you are building a home exercise program for your patients, there are 3 things to keep in mind. First of all, account for asymmetry and strength, endurance, power and proprioception deficits when building your patients home exercise programs. Secondly, remember that the patient may not move in the same way they did when they were healthy. Lastly, ask the patient how they move so that you can build something specific to them!

I will go through how each of these ideas work:

Progression

Progression is a crucial part of any home exercise program. It refers to the gradual increase in difficulty of an exercise over time, which may be achieved by increasing the number of repetitions, increasing the weight used or increasing the speed at which an exercise is performed. Without progression, your patients will plateau and stop seeing benefits from their workouts soon after starting them.

Adaptation

Adaptation is a process of learning to overcome the effects of stress. The body adapts to the stress of exercise by changing its structure and function in order to improve performance, strength, endurance and power.

This adaptation occurs more quickly when you train regularly at low intensities (i.e., 65–75 percent). It also occurs when you perform your exercises with perfect form: no cheating or using momentum to complete an exercise.

Progressive Overload

Progressive overload is the gradual increase in the intensity of your exercise over time. This is important because it helps to prevent plateaus in recovery, and allows you to retrain muscles by increasing their strength or endurance. The body adapts to the stress placed on it, so if you do not progressively increase the intensity of your exercises, you will not see improvements.

For example: If you’re doing bicep curls with 10 lbs weights at one point in time and then stop training them for a few weeks and begin again at 10 lbs weights (with no other changes), they will still be very challenging for your muscle groups because they have become accustomed to those same levels of stress—making it difficult for them to grow stronger (or longer) than what they are currently able. Conversely, if instead you were doing 8 lbs when first starting off; then 6 lbs; then 4 lbs; then 2 lbs; etc., over time this would result in more significant gains since each successive workout causes greater strain on those particular areas compared with previous ones that were less taxing on specific parts of our bodies due simply because there wasn’t any change!

There are specific and basic goals for each stage of ACL rehabilitation.

The following are specific and basic goals for each stage of ACL rehabilitation:

• Progression, adaptation, progressive overload. As you progress in your rehabilitation program, you should notice an increase in strength and range of motion. You should also have few or no symptoms. The first two weeks after surgery are often going to be very hard for your knee as it adjusts to its new position. This can cause pain and swelling as well as difficulty moving the knee at all—especially if you try to bend your leg too far at first (more than 90°). However, these feelings should improve over time if you keep working through them!
• Unilateral exercises: These are done on one side of the body at a time; bilateral exercises involve both sides of the body together at once. Examples include single-leg squatting (unilateral) vs walking backwards (bilateral). If possible during exercise routines, try using both legs together so as not to shift too much weight onto one side while performing other movements like lunges or squats; this will help prevent injury or further damage if there is already instability present around where surgery took place due to trauma such as falling off bicycle while riding downhill fast without wearing helmet during afternoon rush hour traffic hour when busy roadways were congested with cars trying find parking spot near their destination point so they didn’t have far walk back home later since streets weren’t wide enough space large enough accommodate traffic jams caused by construction workers removing old pavement surface before installing new one throughout entire city block area between intersections which required detours signs placed every five feet away from intersection intersection crosswalks marked location where pedestrians allowed cross street safely without risking life danger from traffic lights changing colors randomly red yellow green flashing warning light blinking alerting pedestrians/cyclists alike signal availability possibility crossing opportunity immediately turn left right straight ahead go straight ahead direction head straight forward go straight forward direction

Conclusion

The key to success is in the progression of your patients’ home exercise program. The process of rehabilitation and recovery has many specific goals and phases, each with their own set of exercises. If you don’t progress correctly through each stage, it can stall or even make your patient’s condition worse. Remember these tips when building a home exercise program for your patients: