I recently read an article online about the top exercises that you should do. I find it interesting to see what "experts" are saying about this topic even though, for one reason or another I often wind up disagreeing with what they recommend.
There are some exercises that I believe to be better than others particularly for various diagnosis, yet when we consider that individuals have; different skill levels, needs, and most importantly bodies there is simply no "Best Exercise" for everybody.
There are some guidelines that can be given when recommending exercise to individuals
1. Do No Harm: Safety First. If the exercise is unsafe for an individual it should not be done. There are cases where a patient will want to continue with an exercise or activity that prevents their healing or because of their alignment is causing harm over time. In these cases, I usually explain why I think that the exercise should not be done and ask that they discontinue for a finite period of time to allow healing.
2. Compliance: This one of our greatest challenges with many of our patients. Unless it violates guideline 1, when I am asked "What is the best Exercise?" my simplest answer is "The one that you are going to do". Ideally people will enjoy their exercise, realistically this is not always the case. Additionally, some people simply cannot devote an hour of their day that is dedicated only to exercise. I am one of them. For me 20 minutes is very doable. I make up the rest of my exercise time with what I call purposeful exercise, meaning I will exercise to get somewhere that I need to go anyway rather than driving. The exercise program in order to get done, needs to fit in with their schedule and be regarded as important enough to do.
3. Specificity of Training: This is an Exercise Principle that is violated over and over again. If you want to get better at do a particular skill or activity (ADL) you should do that skill or activity. If it violates principle 1, then you should exercise the muscles that are involved in that skill, by mimicking the range of motion involved and the type of muscle contraction utilized to perform the activity.
5. Make Life your Exercise: One of my professors stated that "The human body is the only machine that gets better with work". I would modify that by saying "An aligned human body is the only machine that gets better with work". If the body is in its appropriate alignment every activity that one performs with good body mechanics in their daily life now becomes an exercise. Transfers and bending to pick something off of the floor are squats, reaching to retrieve an item from the refrigerator and vacuuming now become a modified lunge.
With so many choices when it comes to exercise, using the guideline above, there is simply no reason why an individual cannot discover their own "Best Exercise".
