Exercise Prescription in Rehabilitation and Fitness

Course Description

This course will focus on exercise prescription in rehabilitation and return to fitness following injury. Evidence-based and informed rationales for decision-making will be discussed based on appropriate categorization of a patient or client’s condition and fitness status. The ability to competently select exercise interventions based on a patient or client’s condition is critical for the practice of physical therapy, occupational therapy, athletic training and personal training. While most entry level practitioners possess a basic understanding of which muscles and joints are involved in a particular exercise, a more nuanced understanding of how to match and progress appropriate load to individual conditions is essential for the management of more complex cases.

The course will first seek to categorize patient conditions based on anatomical tissue, chronicity, and the presence of any underlying conditions. Next, criteria for appropriate intervention selection will be organized around sound consideration of the patient’s current functional status and realistic temporal goal setting. Concepts for organizing exercise difficulty, including but not limited to differentiating isolated vs compound exercises and use of the 4 x 4 matrix will be presented. Next participants will learn to build well-reasoned exercise programs that systematically progress patients through rehabilitation and towards their fitness goals. That process will incorporate recognized paradigms for evaluating training human movement.

Concepts to evaluate dysfunction and performance, including but not limited to the Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA) and Functional Movement Screen (FMS) respectively will be introduced. Established concepts and protocols for strength training, as well as lesser known exercise paradigms including but not limited to Medical Exercise Therapy (MET) will be discussed, as well as methods to evaluate patient tolerance to selected interventions. The knowledge of established fitness professionals like Gray Cook, and concepts like athletic motor skill competencies (AMSC) and soreness rules will be incorporated into novel program design that considers changes in motor control following injury.

Course Objectives

At the end of this course, the participant will be able to:

• Identify and differentiate the conditions that cause various forms of weakness.
• Recall components of a basic movement examination and objective ways to determine the most likely impairments to strength expression.
• Explain the organization of history taking to including training history, adaptive capacity and functional strength needs to accurately guide appropriate exercise prescription.
• Recognize impaired motor control and how it affects force output.
• Summarize traditional strength training protocols and how they can be modified for rehabilitation from injury.
• Identify how the concept of “appropriate load” can be applied to different conditions and special populations.
• Modify strengthening programs and client education through the application of soreness rules and other indicators of exercise tolerance.
• Recognize the difference between isolation and compound exercises and classify exercise difficulty for isolation vs compound exercises based on the concepts of Medical Exercise Therapy (MET) and the 4 x 4 Matrix respectively.
• Utilize the concept of athletic motor skill competencies (AMSC) for developing sport-specific return-to-play programs.
• Create and revise exercise prescriptions in the setting of specific injuries and conditions including appropriate functional progressions and goal setting in order for patients/clients to be able to return to their previous level of function and meaningful activities to include return to sport.

• Prerequisites

  None

• Educational Level

  Intermediate

• Other

  Satisfactory completion of this course will require the participant to respond to polling questions asked throughout the webinar.