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Exercise and Health

© Dr. David L. Phillips

Proper exercise is like proper eating, people know what they should be doing, but rarely follow their conscience. Most people that I know and that I treat are already well aware that they should be exercising. They understand that a regular exercise program is critical to their continued good health. Virtually everyone who comes into my office for chiropractic care is, at some point, offered exercises and encouraged to do them daily. In some cases, I get some resistance, which leads to non-compliance. Ultimately, whether to exercise or not is that patient’s individual choice and depends largely on his health self-image. In this article, I don’t want to merely rattle on about how good exercise is for you. You’ve probably heard that ad nauseam from many sources by now. What I will attempt to relate in the following paragraphs is the latest research and current trends about exercise. My thinking is that: if exercise does not come naturally to you but you realize that you must do something, you might as well do the best and most effective/efficient type of program.

First, let’s get this on the table as it is beyond debate: exercise programs have been proven beyond a doubt in the prevention and treatment of muscle and skeletal injuries. Musculoskeletal injuries include back, neck and other joint pains, strains and sprains, tendinitis conditions and most other common conditions seen daily in a chiropractic office. Even acute cases will benefit from some forms of exercise; right from day one. However, this is a new concept and not widely recognized.

I recently read of a study in which three groups of rats were administered a hamstring contusion. Each group was allowed to heal differently. One group was rested for the entire healing time; one group was rested for 72 hours before beginning running or swimming exercises for 15 minutes per day. The other group began 15 minutes of running or swimming exercise within an hour of being injured. All of the exercise groups healed more quickly than the rested group. The group of rats, which began immediate exercise, healed the fastest. An interesting side-note is that running seemed to be the best therapeutic choice for rats with hamstring contusions. (So, perhaps a rat race is not such a bad thing, after all.)

Obviously, not all injuries respond to vigorous exercise at the outset; but it is almost better to err to the active side than to the bed rest mode. It is well established that in cases of acute lower back pain, more than 3 or 4 days of bed rest is decidedly deleterious. The determining factor is the degree and location of inflammation. You don’t want to attempt weight bearing impact exercises on an inflamed joint. However, neutral-resisted and isometric exercises can be beneficially carried out gently and with wisdom very shortly after even a moderately severe joint strain.

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