You Asked:
I have a lot of exercises from physio over the years. They are all helpful, but I just don’t have time. How do I prioritize them?
Our Response:
We all have a limit to the amount of time we are able to devote to our exercises. This is the reality of life and totally reasonable.
A first suggestion would be to do exercises more often for any area you are focused on progressing. If there is a certain area that has pain or you’re currently rehabbing, these exercises can be moved to the top of your stack. Areas of the body that are feeling good and that you are just looking to maintain, can be targeted less frequently throughout the week.
Another thing to consider is the type of exercise. Some things like range of motion or stretching can be done more often, whereas strengthening requires a period for rest and recovery in order to maximize gains. Also, the more load you are adding to your strength exercises, the more recovery time you may need.
And it’s always a good plan to try to do a mix of strengthening and lengthening (stretching) exercises each day. You might choose to organize these by areas of the body. For example, Monday you might do legs, Tuesday arms, and Wednesday back and core. This is purely an example; feel free to customize for what works best for you.
As always, if in doubt, ask your STRIDE physical therapist or exercise therapist to point you in the right direction!
-STRIDE