I would really rather your rehab programme was not perfect (or even a little bit shit)*

*As long as it's done most days.

I would prefer you do a regular rehab programme most days that is a little bit shit than a perfect one once a week then not do it again because you are too busy.

Your rehab doesn't have to be perfect

One of my clients, who is in her 80's is doing an amazing job of her programme. Most days, she does about 10-15 minutes of work and twice a week she goes to the pool and walks.

This includes about 5-10 mins of banded exercises (including rest), 3 sets of 15 sit to stands on the bed.

Last month I had a discussion with her that her strength was not adequate for me to be confident in her ability to maintain her independence at home. Today we progressed her exercises, and she doesn't get a free pass because her birthday is nineteen forty something. Because muscle can continue to grow - as long as the effort is high.

Consistency
Consistency is not about perfection. We often think "if it's not perfect, why would I bother" but doing a little bit regularly is better than doing a lot, occasionally. This to me is like training a pup, doing a small amount most days, which improves things overall much better than a single long session, which they aren't able to cope with.

Consistency doesn't mean doing your programme perfectly. It's about what I term (but it's probably someone else's idea) "cumulative volume" which is the idea of consolidation - which works like compounding interest. Doing 10 mins of a workout 5 x per week (most days, never miss twice) is 50 minutes, and is more than 30 mins once.

"Optimal Training" is a dream we can let go of

There is "optimal" but for so many of us, we don't have the capacity to start with "optimal" - life, work, family and overall energy availability - so if we were to wait for Optimal, we would do nothing. This is also like training a pup - we first get a rough recall, which is often done with assistance, but then we might start to ask a little more of it - no more than it can cope with, but more than it's currently doing. Wanting to only be optimal, is like asking someone to run a marathon without training.

You can't fall off the wagon. There is no wagon.

I want you to make sure you don't fall off the wagon - because there is no wagon. Your life is the road, you are the wagon. You are either doing the thing, or not doing the thing. Time is going by anyway and you can be working on your function and capacity, or you can be maintaining it, or actively losing it.

Being aware that sometimes we are hanging on by a thread to just being able to function (e.g. the start of spring and all the extra jobs), and that is normal, and you may not be able to keep up with a programme that is effective, is a different season to when there is a bit of extra time so you can do more for yourself.

If you stop, you don't need to start over. You just start. (there may be some modifications required, but you just start or keep going). Mindset and the words we use are important.

You Have to Pay The Piper at some stage

It's important to know that while we all have more busy seasons, that if this is a constant for you, know that at some stage, you will have to pay the piper.

The way I look at this is that if you aren't managing your body and capacity, and building strength, today is the strongest you will ever be. If you are ok with that, at some stage you will have some impact to that.

If you have an injury, it's totally fine for you to not get that seen to (being that it's your body and your choice), but there could be some long term implications for your body e.g. inflammation can drive osteoarthritic changes etc.

If you do want it seen to, there may be a time and monetary cost to this, plus a rehab commitment, but the upshot of this is that you improve your capacity, function and are less likely to have long term impacts.

The piper needs to be paid, it just depends on when you want to do that.

(as an aside, did you know that the Pied Piper of Hamlin is thought to be the Norse God Odin in another form?).

One of the most important things in a rehab programme, is having strategies for getting back into the groove when life gets lifey. It's also having strategies which keep completion as a mainstay, and a crummy programme as a bookmark for a better session further down the line.

My clients and I often discuss what is happening in this current season of their life and create their programme around what is happening.

Today I saw someone who is rearing a lot of spring lambs. Their symptoms are far worse with this than they were. We assessed this as a "spring season" issue, rather than an actual injury flare, so our strategy is more "first aid" - what they can do to get through without too much pain and a minimum dose of exercise - we are aiming for maintenance, or a "slower than doing nothing" loss.

If what you want for your rehab is someone who pays attention to what it's like being a human in your body then please hit the book button.

If this season has you wondering "what the actual" about a body part - and wondering whether you need physio or the ED, don't worry, I've got you - go to this page here and see if there is anything for you