From Bridges to Dead Bugs: Surviving Physical Therapy Exercises”

It’s time to do my Physical Therapy (rehab). Wait. Don’t I have to clean the toilet?

I cringe when the therapist hands me the sheets of home exercises for my hip. Ten exercises – 3 sets of 15 each – 450 mindless repetitions of clamshells, leg raises, and bridges.

From VeryWell.com - Brianna Gilmartin

I call PT Pure Torture – not because it’s painful, but because it’s so boring. To paraphrase the Amy Winehouse Rehab song, “I’m supposed to do rehab, but I say no, no, no.”

PT is boring (3)

And this is coming from someone who used to jog on the treadmill for over an hour. Most people would call that boring.

I’m not alone. According to WebPT, only 35% of physical therapy patients fully stick to their plans. (1) Even physical therapists admit the exercises are boring. One Physical Therapist blogger confessed, “Not too long ago, I came to a startling realization that PT exercises were boring.”(2) No S#$* Sherlock!

Yet boredom is never on the official list of reasons why people quit. Really? Do they think we’re thrilled about endless repetitions with little progress?

I’m convinced a drill sergeant invented PT. Drill sergeants don’t care if drills are boring—they’ve got full control.

So why, after decades of dull therapy, hasn’t someone made it more interesting? It wouldn’t take much: add music, mix up the moves, or combine a few into routines. Jazzercise, Zumba, and even ballet warm-ups use five to seven basic steps, strung together so you aren’t stuck repeating the same one 45 times in a row. And of course, they use music to keep the beat. Surely PT could manage a few playlists: Rock, Big Band, Hip Hop.

One clever computer geek turned PT into a video game. (3) Brilliant.

Video Game for elbow flexion exercise (3)

The problem is, even when I did stick to my PT program, I often saw no progress. Sometimes I even got worse. The only thing that helped was massage and electrical therapy, which not all therapists do. Thankfully, my current one does, and I improved more in two weeks than I had in months with the silly exercises. Too bad insurance only covers a few sessions. In my next life, I’m marrying a masseuse.

Still, some amazing people keep up with their PT. A neighbor who broke her hip faithfully does her rehab and now manages church, groceries, and even walks the stairs carrying her walker! And a neighbor with severe back problems stuck with her exercise sheet for over a year before she could return to gardening. That’s persistence.

Persistence, even though some moves are downright awful. My friends and I all agree—we hate bridges. One friend swapped them out for the “dead bug” exercise. At least the name makes you laugh.

So what keeps them going? One friend said she sees improvement, and besides, the alternatives aren’t pretty: chronic pain, walking hunched over, or back surgery. And many of us have heard horror stories about back surgery.

I’d love to know what drives people to keep doing PT for weeks, months, even years. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone could bottle that persistence and sell it as a pill?

As for me, despite not seeing much improvement yet, I keep plugging away. Maybe one of these days I’ll get back to my walk/jog fitness routine. In the meantime, I may just take my own advice—add some music and make a routine out of it.

References

1. Ryan Klepps, Improving Home Exercise Program Adherence in Physical Therapy, WebPT, June 20, 2018

2. Exercise is Boring! How to Maintain Strength After You Finish PT, PhysicalTherapySpokane.com,  Aug31, 2018

3. Cosmin Mihaiu, physical therapy is boring. Play a game instead.  Boring and painful barely follow home treatment 

4. Video Games as Therapeutic Tools for Occupational and Physical Therapy: Fad or Fact?, Therapy Brands, September 11, 2023