Best Exercises for Rehabilitation

by James Wei

I’ve noticed that most exercises prescribed by physiotherapists are ineffective or don’t work for certain types of Musculoskeletal disorders. I would like to provide what are the most effective exercises for strengthening and rehabilitation, but before we do so, let’s cover exercises and modalities that don’t work or are harmful. Note that these come from my own personal experience.

TRX

TRX is not a substitute for weight-training or resistance training, and is very dangerous for patients because TRX utilizes the entire body’s weight for exercises, which can easily injure the patient. I can only recommend exercises using TRX that are facing away from the TRX straps to strengthen the rhomboids; never do exercises that require pulling. A New York Times Article was written highlighting the risks of TRX. Moreover, the problem with TRX is that the straps themselves are unstable and do not deliver resistance equally such as a cable machine.

Overhead band exercises

Overhead exercises are very dangerous and will exacerbate upper crossed syndrome. It will make the neck muscles very tight.

Internal rotation exercises

Internal rotation exercises are not good because in the modern lifestyle, people already have rounded shoulders and tight forward chain muscles from driving, sitting on a computer. One should perform external rotation instead, such as the reverse fly.