Mandatory: why does everyone need physical therapy?

Many people have heard the abbreviation LFK, for example, in sanatoriums or health centers. But how does physical therapy differ from ordinary sports? And to whom it can be useful? Anton Zinakov, the founder, ideologist and co-owner of the LabRehab Sports Recovery Center, told us about it.

What is therapeutic physical training for?

We can distinguish two main directions of therapeutic physical training:

• recovery after injury;
• prophylaxis to prevent injuries.

With rehabilitation everything is more or less clear: I think most people realize that after any surgery or fracture, rupture, severe stretching there is a period of recovery of the body and the damaged area to the former conditions. But I would dwell more on prevention.

In my understanding, LFC within the framework of injury prevention is a mandatory and indispensable part of the training process. I will not take responsibility and say that this applies to any amateur sport, but to cyclic sports for sure. Although playing sports is no less traumatizing.

Therapeutic physical training is a basic preparation of the organism for the conditional start season, only on a more, I would say, fundamental level. The method of physical therapy is based on working deep and small muscles of the body, which are usually not involved in the process for various reasons. Someone has very weak muscles, someone does not know about their existence, someone simply cannot “turn them on”.

Why do you need to work the deep muscles?

Of course, for a person who does not get into the intricacies of the training process, the meaning of “turning on” or “not turning on” some small and deep muscles is not very clear. But this is until the first injury. Or the realization that the exercises do not give the desired effect, no matter how much effort you put in. So why train deep muscles?

As a rule, during physical activity it is easier for the body to use large and “easily accessible” muscle groups, which it does. But these “heavyweights” must be supported by an “army” of small muscles, tendons and ligaments that are prepared and adapted to loads. Firstly, so fatigue comes much later, because the load is distributed conditionally evenly. And secondly, when a large muscle unit is “switched off”, there is still a resource to maintain the pace at the expense of a group of “small” muscles. In the other case, when a large muscle gets tired, the ability to maintain the required tempo ends as well.

It is for this reason that training the “little guys” is the foundation of the basics. It is easier to work with large muscles, because you can see them more clearly. And from an emotional point of view it is more interesting to work out in the gym than in the gym for physical therapy. Although, of course, a lot depends on the trainer. Therapeutic physical training is a necessity that should not be bypassed even in amateur sports.

How does LFC help to preserve the resources of the body?

Also few people think about the resources of the whole body, as well as individual muscle groups and joints, which bear the main load. If now you have no injuries, damage or painful sensations, and you are satisfied with the growth of results, it does not mean that the resources are not exhausted. The body is an intelligent system that has mastered the skills of compensation. These are what mislead us.

How does it work? For example, you perform some elementary exercise with your own weight in the gym. You think you are doing it effortlessly. But in fact it turns out that you are not using the intended muscle group, but a parallel one! Because the necessary muscles are smaller and not ready for the load: it is much easier for the body to quickly connect a larger muscle group and execute the “order” of the brain. This is compensation.

In the end, this approach leads to accelerated wear and tear of individual muscles and the joints they serve. This happens because in addition to compensatory tasks they have direct “duties”. Therefore, the resource is exhausted faster. That is, if you do not work on deep and small muscles, as well as do not work on “turning on” the right group for the right task, then, unfortunately, injury is inevitable.

LFC is ideally an integral part of any training process. It allows you to achieve great results, avoid injuries and give your body a more physiological and harmonious vector of muscle mass development.