The aim of physiotherapy

The aim of physiotherapy rehabilitation is to help you return to daily activities, leisure or sport at a level that meets your life requirements. For some individuals the goal will be a full symptom free recovery of activities. For individuals with long term conditions the aim will be to help individuals manage symptoms of pain, swelling or instability so that they can continue with an acceptable level of activity.

Exercise prescription

A well designed rehabilitation programme will also include details about how long you should carry out each exercise and guidance on the number of repetitions and sets and the effort levels that are required. This will need to be reviewed over the course of your treatment depending on your ability and comfort and fatigue levels. It will also vary depending on the goal of the exercises.

Animation 1: Physiotherapy home exercise

https://youtu.be/S_gloEan9m8

What to expect when starting a rehabilitation programme

It is important that you feel that your rehabilitation programme is 'doing something'. If you feel that your programme is too easy or too hard it is important to discuss this with your physiotherapist. Nobody knows your knee like you so it is essential that you are involved in developing your rehabilitation programme and giving your physiotherapist feedback. It can sometimes take a few treatment sessions to build up your exercise.

If you are just starting to increase your levels of activity after a long spell of inactivity then please watch the video below.

Video 1: Activity guidance

Setting rehabilitation goals

Early in your rehabilitation your physiotherapist will discuss with you what you would like to achieve from attending physiotherapy. Realistic and achievable rehabilitation goals will then be set. A mix of short, medium, and long term goals are important to help motivation

and satisfaction with the process. Goals can be re-evaluated over the course of your treatment.

Amount of rehabilitation

This will vary on an individual basis but normally the physiotherapist will structure treatment so that you combine face to face treatment with a programme of activities so that you can continue your treatment at home.

Types of rehabilitation

Exercise

Research findings to date have shown that when you have a knee condition that movement and exercise are important treatments to help individuals recover or achieve their treatment goals. Rehabilitation programmes will contain a mixture of different types of exercises that will help you in different ways:

• Range of movement and flexibility exercises will to help you maintain, increase or restore the amount of movement you have at a joint.
• Neuromuscular control exercises help you relearn movement skills that you need for your everyday life. These exercises help improve the quality of your movement and can have added benefits of improving fitness and muscle strength.
• Balance and proprioception exercises will help you improve the wobbliness, control and stability of your knee and give you confidence in your knee.
• Agility exercises such as quick starting and stopping or direction changes, help prepare your body to respond to sudden changes that you may encounter during your everyday life.
• Plyometric exercises such as jumping and hopping help to strengthen your legs and help you prepare for returning to demanding activities such as sports and some jobs. These activities often mimic movements that will be encountered during an individual's everyday life.

• Strengthening exercises for individual or groups of muscles. This can be achieved by using weight machines, free weights or more simply by using your own body weight as resistance to improve your strength. It is essential that you carry out the correct number of repetitions with sufficient weight/ load to have a beneficial strengthening effect.
• Aerobic exercise such as exercise bikes, cross trainer, rowers, stepper machines or treadmill aim to improve your overall fitness.
• Sport or task specific activities.

Manual therapy

This includes 'hands on' techniques such massage or manipulation, which can be used for pain relief or to increase movement and flexibility. These techniques are frequently used in conjunction with an exercise programme.

Taping and Bracing

This may be used to provide support or alter the loading of your joint