Through various injuries over my life, I’ve spent a decent amount of time at the physios office.
After each session, one can expect to be given a daily exercise regime to work on whatever is causing the problem.
I ALWAYS abide.
I’m like a soldier being shouted at by his general. Yes Captain! I will obey your orders!
I feel tremendously guilty if I don’t have time and skip a day.
And it got me thinking. Am I the only one?
And do physios actually believe me?
When I tore a ligament in my knee a few years back, the damn thing took ages to heal. A common sports injury that keeps pro footballers off the field for about 6 weeks (or so I was told), took me through more than a year of physical therapy and threats of operation before I was back to 100%. My physio would ask me from time to time if I was doing my prescribed exercises, and then look at me dubiously when I reported: “Every day like clockwork”.
To this day I am quite sure he did not believe me.
When I hurt my back earlier this year, the physio started me off easy: 5 minutes of simple mobility exercises that can be done in bed, twice daily. Yet every time I went to see him again, he’d add a couple more – and after 10 sessions, it was 30+ minutes, twice a day. I was waking up a half hour early, using the gym at work in my lunch break, basically busting my ass to fit the extra hour into my day.
Most people thought I was nuts – and said that they definitely wouldn’t keep it up.
Which led me to the thought – do physios assume this – and therefore tell their clients to do more than what is required, because they inherently know that the vast population will only do half, if that, of what was prescribed?
Because if so, I have been going overboard my whole life!
On my last session for my back, my physio happily delivered the final blow: If I do my exercises, every day, twice a day, FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE, then I won’t have further back problems. Now I want back problems again like a hole in the head, but come on! Give me a break! The first thing I thought of in the morning and the last thing I thought of at night was those damn exercises. I couldn’t keep it up forever.
So I begged for respite. He conceded: Once a day, unless it’s sore, then I should make it twice.
Thank goodness.
So I happily cut back to once a day (have only had to do the double on a couple of occasions so far). And my back continues to improve. I also started incorporating the exercises into my strength work-outs and adding weights where possible. While I used to feel annoyed stretching after a run (so boring), I feel like it now serves a purpose.
Yes, I’m weird, and pedantic, and a little bit crazy.
But what about you? Does anyone else always do their physio exercise? I can’t be the only one!
an aussie in austria 