By Geoffrey Hogan (M.Ost) Farringdon Osteopaths
As with any habit that a person wishes to maintain, doing something at the same time every day is the best way to make sure you remember to do it every day.
Most people who have seen an osteopath for treatment will have been prescribed exercises in the form of stretches or strengthening exercises to help them to get better faster and to prevent their injury from reoccurring in the future.
When an injury recovers to the point where it’s no longer sending regular pain signals it is not unusual to forget to do the prescribed exercises as the pain is no longer reminding you to do them. Additionally, when a person’s environment changes or their daily routine changes it is easy once again to forget to do those exercises regularly.
However, if the exercises have been done at the same time every day it is less likely that a patient will forget to do them when the pain begins to subside or the patient’s environment changes.
It’s usually best to do them in the morning. This not only helps to improve the biomechanics for the rest of the day, but also gets them out of the way. That way, unexpected changes to the daily routine as the day unfolds can’t get in the way of doing them either.
During the school holidays many of those with young children will be taking time off for childcare, going away for a few days, doing activities outside of their usual day-to-day and for some people with very young children they will be doing a lot more bending and lifting.
If you are a patient who has been prescribed regular exercises in order to recover from an injury this change in activity could result in a relapse in symptoms, especially if the exercises are forgotten also.
So in the lead up to the school holidays this is a friendly reminder to everyone to please do your prescribed exercises at the same time every day, preferably in the morning, and remember to do them throughout the break especially.
For those taking time off have a lovely time.