Crucial Massage Movements and Exercises

I wanted to start by talking about making movement and exercise meaningful in this first one.

This is a concept that in recovery is progressively bandied around but still has the feeling of a buzzword rather than something well established.

First, let's distinguish the concept of meaningful from what 'functional' is defined by many. There is no need for effective exercise to look at or replicate the motions, mechanics, or even physical characteristics that individuals may need.

Everything that is significant is far more about the WHY or the meaning behind doing it (as the title suggests:)

It's the therapists too much why, but it should really be the PERSON doing it WHY! We also have a lot of why s, ROMs, power, and other outcome indicators as therapists that are often not really quite well matched with WHY patients.

Put yourself in the boots of the other person — why am I really doing that? And in the end, by doing that, how will that benefit me? For a lot of stuff in life, we pretty much do this estimate.

It could be argued now that getting out of pain should be a major enough WHY. But when it comes to exercise, especially for recovery, we know that from the adherence data (commitment is a much better word btw) it is not enough and this also applies to medication adherence and general health advice.

So we also have to think about HOW to get to WHY people. Ok, I assume this really has to come from the way we communicate with our patients as HCPs. It's really difficult to establish a real significance, Sense, or as I like to call it a 'finding a HOOK' without understanding what they want to accomplish or their valued activities.

Essentially, with the right justification and the connexion to a motivating and concrete objective, any movement could be framed as significant. Learning more about sets and reps does not enhance your performance!

Latest research has shown some very strong impact sizes for the use of goal-setting back pain interventions * HERE *

Here's an example of real life from a course I taught in Canada last weekend. An attendee was debating preparation for Jiu-Jitsu. He said the social dimension is 50 percent of the reason he goes. Firstly, imagine the effect (more than just pain!) of NOT moving on life, secondly the drive to get BACK to go.

Not just doing an exercise because someone told me to, Rehab should dig into the essence of the life of that person and what they benefit by doing it.

The issue was one of seeking a therapeutic activity to address the problem, such as VMO firing for knee pain or core firing for back pain. We might theoretically call this targeting the muscle, but missing the human. So, we're talking about motions right now, not muscles, but how about people talking? Maybe it takes a Target, a HOOK, a Sense to get people moving?

Perhaps one of the advantages of dealing with a sporting or involved community is that the WHY is always clear-cut, often even over-motivated by individuals. The sense is integrated into the system.

The problem with chronic pain may be that the motivation is not so straight cut, we need to dig a little deeper as pain may minimise the attention of people and decrease the amount of choices they feel available to lead a full life. This is where I feel that 'finding a hook' can be very important.

Meaningful suggestions for movement

Listen and 'locate the hook'

Take the time to describe why moving helps

Link the details back to the 'hook'

Spending time building confidence https://www.londonmobilemassage.ca/services/relaxation/ and positive perceptions of movement

Think about people rather than exercise,