Ok, secrets out. I know you’re TERRIFIED to tell your physio you haven’t been doing your exercises!!
My favourite response to the question: “Have you been doing your exercises?” is “Not as much as I should be” – it can never technically be a lie, right? 😂
I’ll be honest, in my younger physio days when I found out someone hadn’t been doing their exercises”as much as they should be”, I DID think
⁉️ well why the heck not
⁉️ don’t you want to get better?
⁉️ how can you expect to improve if you’re not doing the work?
⁉️ phew, the lack of results is their fault, not mine (just a little bit…)
With 18years of experience working with people through lots of differnt things, that little voice inside my head has since changed her tune 🎶
Now, she says:
🤔 Hmm, I wonder why.
💭 Were they too complicated?
💭Were there too many?
💭Were they too hard to remember?
💭Did I not explain the role of the exercises well enough?
💭Did they not fit into their life?
💭Is there something else getting in the way?
💭Is this person lacking the support / rest / bandwidth right now to make them a priority?
Then we troubleshoot together:
💙Can we cut them down, make them simpler or spend more time going through them?
❔Can we break them up into incidental exercises or movement snacks?
❔Can we use habit stacking, visual cues or an accountability system to help make them part of the daily routine?
❔Can we define the end goal even better?
❔Do we need a totally different self- management plan?
See, we want to work WITH you so that you feel empowered with the knowledge and skills to take care of your body. We are not here to shame you or punish you for not doing your homework.
Hope this makes you a little less scared to give your physio the truth when they next ask you if you’ve been doing your exercises 😜