Patient FAQs

A: Most conditions treated by your chiropractor will benefit from movement and mobility.  It is important to know when, what type, and how much activity is appropriate.

Movement is critical to healing.  Pain is a warning to stop.  Balancing these two things is the challenge, and capacity for activity can vary day to day as healing changes progress.

In the early stages of treatment, light stretching and walking, plus gentle daily activities, are usually safe and helpful. Therapeutic rehab exercises can be added as your condition improves.

It is common for active patients to push too hard too soon and equally common for sedentary patients to struggle with the idea of activity. You will want to find the middle ground.

A general guide to follow:

1. Sharp pain means stop immediately.  
2. Duller muscular aches can be pushed gently.  
3. Fatigue coming from the activity is a gentle warning to stop.  Remember, this is rehab, not fitness.
4. Rehabilitation exercise is not the same as fitness training. Your goal in rehab is to restore the capacity to get back to normal daily activities, including fitness training, so you must listen carefully to your body. Pushing too hard too soon will potentially delay full recovery and increase frustration.
5. Your activities and exercise will change as you heal. Each step is specific and acts as a building block to the next phase.

As always, your personal requirements are unique to you and your chiropractor will advise and guide you through your individual process.

1. Age
2. Current level of fitness
3. Time availability
4. Specific training goals – eg fitness, sport specific performance, rehab, etc
5. Specific exercise likes or dislikes
6. Current physical status related to injuries
7. Physical job requirements
8. Previous sport or fitness experience
9. And others…

1. Age – we naturally heal more slowly as we age. Tissues are less responsive, and old injuries or ingrained postural habits are harder to overcome.
2. Natural healing capacity – clinically, we have observed how different people heal at different rates.  We don’t always know why, but these differences do exist and tend to be consistent from episode to episode.
3. Nature of the injury – the greater the tissue damage, the slower the healing.
4. Time span between the onset of symptoms and the start of treatment – the sooner we begin to introduce corrective change, the quicker the recovery.
5. Energy levels – healing requires energy. Pre-existing fatigue leaves less energy available for healing processes.
6. Daily stresses – emotional, postural, climate, daily activity requirements, pre-existing conditions are examples of stressors that we all experience. They influence the time and quality of recovery.

1. Too much treatment in too short a time will overwhelm and confuse healing activities causing re-aggravations and delays.
2. Too little treatment or too much time between treatments will not allow your body to retain the healing changes. If there is too much time between adjustments, you will start to revert back to the previous dysfunction.

There is an ideal sequence to healing in the chiropractic setting.

In neuromusculoskeletal (NMS) conditions, we correct dysfunction by re-educating your body’s movement patterns into proper function.

Specific chiropractic adjustments restore proper movement to segments where it has been compromised. This allows muscles, nerves, and supporting holding elements to respond back to their normal functions. Pain reduction follows.

Here are the stages:

1. Corrective adjustments reduce movement dysfunction around individual skeletal joints.
2. This allows muscles, which have been holding onto protective tension, to release that tension. It also removes the source of irritation that causes soft tissues to inflame, thereby reducing local inflammation.
3. Newly restored muscles will now be pulling in the correct patterns so they can begin to build back strength and endurance.

If Steps 2 and 3 happen naturally, there is no need for any other interventions.

If Step 2 does not happen naturally, then you will be referred to the appropriate soft tissue therapy to ensure that the muscles do adapt correctly. We offer IMS (Intramuscular Stimulation) and Shockwave. Both are delivered by physiotherapists. Deep tissue massage and ART (Active Release Technique) are delivered by RMTs (Registered Massage Therapists).

If Step 3 strength and endurance do not occur naturally, then rehabilitative exercise will be prescribed.

These steps must happen in the correct sequence, or your body will not heal as efficiently or as quickly. We often combine therapies, but only if the proper staging sequence is maintained.

Your chiropractor will guide you through the process efficiently, slotting in the appropriate intervention at the appropriate time.