• Home
  • About
  • Articles
  • Coaches
    • Jamie Johnston
    • Ben Cormack
    • Laura Allen
    • Walt Fritz
    • Todd Hargrove
    • Robert Libbey
    • Meaghan Mounce
    • Dr. Erson Religioso III
  • Courses
  • Contact
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
Become a Contributor

10 Evidence Based Reasons Why You & Your Patients Should Exercise

August 27, 2018/3 Comments/in Massage, Massage Clinic, Massage Therapist, Massage Therapy, Mental Health, Therapeutic Exercise /by Ben Cormack

Exercise is great, we know this, right?

Well, sort of.

Many people know exercise is good for us on a general level, but the question is, do they know it’s right for them on an individual level and is it the right fix for their problem?

This is an entirely different proposition, applying that general information to the person. This idea that these things are good for us can be quite vague, one of those things we may have glanced over in a newspaper or half-hearted on the news whilst eating our corn flakes.

People also build up ideas about what is the correct treatment for them. This can be from their own in-depth research on the internet (right!), what they have picked up from friends and family or from previous treatment with a therapist. This can lead to some pretty strong ideas about what should and perhaps should not be done to help them.

These beliefs don’t always align with the best available data we have about interventions. A prime example of this is the belief that exercise risks outweigh the benefits with back pain (55% of folk in New Zealand). This stat was taken from this Darlow paper in 2016 HERE. 

We know that exercise can be effective with back pain, certainly not a magic bullet, but one of the best things we have at our disposable within a comprehensive treatment plan, especially as it is low cost and low risk too.

Beliefs And Expectations

Our beliefs drive our expectations and actions. Predicted expectations are gaining weight as a prognostic factor in recovery over the past decade. They may influence my participation and behaviour in a treatment plan that will ultimately affect the outcome.  If I don’t believe in something I am much less likely to do it.

How can we combat this? Well, in my opinion, the best tool we have is good quality information we can use to combat the beliefs that may hold people back. A key to start affecting beliefs, again, in my opinion, is not to challenge too firmly, but inform people using well-evidenced information. One of my favourite one-liners is “That’s what we used to think but we are learning new things all the time, the latest research suggests…”

Here are some small tidbits of information that we can use to start informing our patients and clients about the role of exercise in pain AND health, which of course ultimately affects pain too!

Remember that giving people information is really designed to change behaviour rather than just show how smart you are so monitoring what happens is pretty important.

1. Exercise Is One Of The Best Evidence-Based Interventions We Have For MSK Pain

This paper HERE from 2017 in PLOS one shows moderate to strong effectiveness of exercise as an intervention for many MSK issues. This is in contrast to the belief that things need to be zapped, needled or popped back into place.

My therapist only gave me some exercises. Yep. Because they followed the evidence!

2. Exercise Won’t Make Your Body Worse

So many people see the body as a bit of machinery. The more it works the more the parts need replacing. Is this true? Absolutely NOT. The body is an organic organism that adapts both positively and negatively to stimulus. The more active we are (within reason) the stronger we become. The less active, well…

A classic common belief is that our intervertebral discs wear out the more we use them. This classic study from Battie HERE (2009) looked at twins to determine the major contributors to disc degeneration. They suggest that the “commonly held view that disc degeneration is primarily a result of ageing and ‘wear and tear’ from mechanical insults and injuries, was not supported by this series of studies”.

This study HERE from 2017 found that if you have a rotator cuff tear, the tear getting worse did not appear to be simply related to activity levels. In fact, they suggest pain development is actually associated with LOWER activity levels. If I had a pound for every time it has been suggested to me that running damages the knees then I would be a rich man. A study of marathon runners HERE showed that they had LESS meniscal abnormalities than non-runners.

3. Exercise Might Actually Make The Discs In Your Back Healthier!

Two recent studies have shown a POSITIVE effect of activity on intervertebral discs. Firstly this study HERE from 2017 showed that MORE vigorous activity was associated with BETTER disc health on MRI. Secondly, in this paper from 2016 HERE. Runners were shown to have intervertebral discs that had increase hypertrophy compared to the non-athletic group. The authors suggest that running actually strengthens the discs, whether we can infer a causal relationship here is unclear but this goes against activity causing wear and tear which is a common belief.

4. Activity Is A Pain Killer

This study HERE showed that older adults who were MORE active also had better endogenous pain inhibitory mechanisms when their conditioned pain modulation (CPM) was tested. Simply put, this means the more active the better their natural pain-killing mechanisms were. Which of course is super cool.

5. Exercise Is An Anti Inflammatory

This study HERE showed that regular physical activity caused an increase in interleukin -10 which is an anti-inflammatory cytokine that can reduce nociceptor sensitisation.

Now the caveat here is this study was performed in an animal population but as we know that there are associations between inactivity and both acute and chronic pain in humans it is a linked that potentially needs to be better explored.

6. Lack Of Exercise Is Associated With Chronic Pain

This large study HERE looked at the relationship between recreational exercise and chronic pain. Both older and younger folk were studied and the researchers found that for both groups exercise participation was associated with reduced chronic pain. A relationship was also present for the frequency, duration and intensity of that exercise.

7. Lack Of Exercise As A Major Cause Of Chronic Diseases

This comprehensive paper HERE makes a case for a lack of exercise being a primary prevention against 35 chronic conditions suffered by us poor humans. This goes beyond what most of us involved in the musculoskeletal field would have to deal with but also shows the importance of exercise for systemic health too.

8. It’s Involved In Mental Health As Well

We are understanding more and more that the mind and the body cannot really be separated. Physical health and mental health are interlinked in the human being and guess what…..exercise plays a role in improving mental health too. This paper HERE explores the mechanisms that may relate to mental health and exercise.

This randomised control trial looked at aerobic exercise and a variety of measures of psychological health HERE. The authors found significant group differences that favoured the exercise group.

9. You Want To Live Longer Right?

Strength training in this paper HERE was found to have a significant association with decreased mortality in adults over 65. But only a minority of this age group actually meet the current guidelines.

10. Have A Healthier Heart

This prospective study of 15 years duration HERE found that physical activity was a predictor of cardiovascular disease.

Summing Up

There are a whole bunch of others studies that relate to these topics but I just picked a few. I think it demonstrates that physical activity and exercise have an effect on us on a number of different levels, from the heart to the head to pain as well.

  • Do it
  • Do it
  • Do it
  • Do it

Ben Cormack

Ben Cormack has a passion for getting people moving and using and understanding movement as an important tool to help others. Originally from a fitness background, Ben has gone on to study Sports therapy and widely in the fields of rehabilitation, pain science and movement over the last 15 years. Ben owns and runs Cor-Kinetic, an educational company who use modern research into pain, movement and neurosciences to provide a reasoning process and rehab skills to those who also place a priority on using movement and exercise as key competencies. Cor-kinetic has provided educational services for the NHS, Elite level sports clubs and universities as well as individual physio’s, Osteopaths, Chiropractors, sports therapists, rehab, and personal trainers.

Facebook Twitter 

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Ben Cormack
Ben Cormack has a passion for getting people moving and using and understanding movement as an important tool to help others. Originally from a fitness background, Ben has gone on to study Sports therapy and widely in the fields of rehabilitation, pain science and movement over the last 15 years. Ben owns and runs Cor-Kinetic, an educational company who use modern research into pain, movement and neurosciences to provide a reasoning process and rehab skills to those who also place a priority on using movement and exercise as key competencies. Cor-kinetic has provided educational services for the NHS, Elite level sports clubs and universities as well as individual physio’s, Osteopaths, Chiropractors, sports therapists, rehab, and personal trainers.
Latest posts by Ben Cormack (see all)
  • Have We Ballsed Up The Biopsychosocial Model? - January 4, 2021
  • In Defence Of The Advice To Remain Active For Back Pain - November 2, 2020
  • A Simple Guide To Patient Centred Exercise - September 28, 2020
Tags: Massage, Massage Clinic, Massage Therapist, Massage Therapy, Mental Health, Therapeutic Exercise
https://themtdc.com/wp-content/uploads/Untitled-design-20-1.png 400 600 Ben Cormack https://themtdc.com/wp-content/uploads/logo.svg Ben Cormack2018-08-27 21:09:162020-08-20 12:21:1710 Evidence Based Reasons Why You & Your Patients Should Exercise
You might also like
Articles Of The Week August 9, 2020
Articles Of The Week December 15, 2019
Articles Of The Week April 22, 2018
Back Pain Myths: Posture, Core Strength, Bulging Discs
https://flic.kr/p/7J6UiF Massage Therapist Treatment For An Achilles Tendon Rupture
Crossed Arm Syndrome
Articles Of The Week May 26, 2019
Best massage therapy articles of the week for November 22, 2020 Articles Of The Week November 22, 2020
3 replies
  1. Sports Massage Therapist
    Sports Massage Therapist says:
    August 31, 2018 at 6:07 am

    This information is useful for each & every person. This will clear the false common beliefs of people & will motivate them to work

    • Jamie Johnston
      Jamie Johnston says:
      August 31, 2018 at 6:00 pm

      Let’s hope!

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. Evolve Massage Evidence Informed Massage Resource Library - Amara Massage Therapy and Wellness says:
    November 13, 2018 at 1:23 pm

    […] “10 Evidence Based Reasons Why You & Your Patients Should Exercise” by Jamie Johnston, RMT […]

Comments are closed.

Categories

  • Business
  • Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
  • CPR
  • Emergencies
  • First Aid
  • First Responder
  • Massage
  • Massage Clinic
  • Massage Therapist
  • Massage Therapy
  • Mental Health
  • Myofascial Release
  • Nutrition
  • Pain
  • PTSD
  • Social Media
  • Sport Massage
  • Therapeutic Exercise
  • Uncategorized

Join and stay up-to-date!

Email Marketing by AWeber

Have a solution to a problem within our industry? We want to hear about it!

Learn More

© 2020  James Johnston RMT • All Rights Reserved
Website by Caorda Web Solutions

Ben Cormack

Ben Cormack has a passion for getting people moving and using and understanding movement as an important tool to help others. Originally from a fitness background, Ben has gone on to study Sports therapy and widely in the fields of rehabilitation, pain science and movement over the last 15 years. Ben owns and runs Cor-Kinetic, an educational company who use modern research into pain, movement and neurosciences to provide a reasoning process and rehab skills to those who also place a priority on using movement and exercise as key competencies. Cor-kinetic has provided educational services for the NHS, Elite level sports clubs and universities as well as individual physio’s, Osteopaths, Chiropractors, sports therapists, rehab, and personal trainers.

Facebook Twitter 

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Ben Cormack
Ben Cormack has a passion for getting people moving and using and understanding movement as an important tool to help others. Originally from a fitness background, Ben has gone on to study Sports therapy and widely in the fields of rehabilitation, pain science and movement over the last 15 years. Ben owns and runs Cor-Kinetic, an educational company who use modern research into pain, movement and neurosciences to provide a reasoning process and rehab skills to those who also place a priority on using movement and exercise as key competencies. Cor-kinetic has provided educational services for the NHS, Elite level sports clubs and universities as well as individual physio’s, Osteopaths, Chiropractors, sports therapists, rehab, and personal trainers.
Latest posts by Ben Cormack (see all)
  • Have We Ballsed Up The Biopsychosocial Model? - January 4, 2021
  • In Defence Of The Advice To Remain Active For Back Pain - November 2, 2020
  • A Simple Guide To Patient Centred Exercise - September 28, 2020
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OK

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Privacy Policy
Accept settingsHide notification only

Clinical Pain Science For The Low Back, Pelvis And Hips

This course will be presented over a zoom meeting.  Details will be sent after you register.

Clinical Pain Science For The Low Back, Pelvis And Hips Remote

  • Price: $ 500.00 CAD