I think one of the hardest parts with PT for chronic illness is consistency. I mean just think about it for a minute. When most people think of PT, it’s for a specific injury. A sprained ankle, a shoulder surgery, hip replacement…
There’s more of a definitive start and end to participation in PT. You “graduate” and move on. Stop thinking about that old injury, and your therabands start to collect dust or get put to use for different purposes (don’t think your PT doesn’t know haha)
But what about when you’re living with a chronic illness. When PT has more to do with symptom management, and it’s a lifelong commitment. It’s pretty easy to be consistent with PT when there’s an end in sight, but much harder to do so when you know well it’s not going to resolve all your symptoms, but help manage them IF you stick with it.
As you work through PT focusing on different parts of the body, you can start to work on exercises that address multiple regions of the body. Quadruped, or hands and knees, is a great position to work in (with plenty of ways to modify) where you can be more efficient and work towards multiple goals at once.
Here’s some tips for managing your PT homework:
be sure to ask your PT to send you the list of your home exercises for you to reference
as your list of exercises gets longer, start to categorize the exercises so it is easier to choose what to work on based on your energy level and the amount of time you have
talk to your PT about exercises (such as the one pictured above) that are more“total body” so that you can be more efficient with your energy
try to be as consistent as possible with your exercises to help create the habit, BUT give yourself grace when you have a bad day or week or month
Do you struggle with consistency at times? Leave a comment below and let’s talk about it!