EXERCISE PERFORMANCE
at Absolute Health and Wellness
Exercise serves various roles for many people, including weight loss, weight gain, strength training, muscle growth, mental health betterment, or for sport. Regardless of why, the ability to perform the exercise is important.
No matter the type of exercise, nutrition is key and may be customized to your goals. Recovery is also vital: it depends on sleep, nutrition and inflammation support.
Exercise itself must be done safely and within your own personal limits. A biomechanical screen can be helpful to identify muscle imbalances and joint dysfunction. Pain brought on by exercise can be assessed and treated by our team at Absolute Health and Wellness.
The Naturopath's Approach to Exercise Performance
ASSESSMENT: Whether your goal is weight loss, weight gain, strength gains, muscle growth, mental health, energy or any combination of the above, the following play crucial roles:
- Diet: a lot of misconceptions exist around nutrition, so it is important to understand how your diet aligns with your goals
- Exercise: understanding what you’re currently doing helps plan for your future goals
- Hormones: hormones play a huge role in every aspect of exercise performance
- Healthy Aging: as we age, our capacity for exercise changes. Some are modifiable.
- Specialized Lab Testing: depending on your goals and difficulties, special tests may help identify what’s stopping you from reaching your goals
TREATMENT: our naturopath uses several options to help you optimize your physical performance
- Nutrition / Diet: Many aspects of performance relates to how you fuel your body. We need to feed but not over-feed. We may need to tweak your diet according to your goals.
- Vitamins/Minerals: certain nutrients are helpful for specific aspects of exercise. Whether it be recovery, energy, strength gains or weight loss, it’s important to understand what supplements are safe, effective and indicated for your case
- Acupuncture and Dry Needling: acupuncture is helpful for various aspects of training, including inflammation control, hormone modification and trigger point release. If you’re feeling pain from lifting, maybe acupuncture can help!
Click here to learn more about Naturopathy.
The Phyiotherapist's Approach to Exercise Performance
ASSESSMENT: Our physiotherapists will help you improve your exercise performance by assessing the following:
- Patient History: understand your goals, history and predisposing/limiting factors
- Observation: posture, muscle mass swelling
- Gait and Functional Tests: assess your body mechanics and ensure exercises are being done with proper form
- Range of Motion: noting joint restrictions and comparing your mobility to normal values
- Strength: looking for weakness and imbalances
- Soft Tissues: test the integrity of your ligaments, tendons and muscles
- Palpation: to assess joint and muscle health and find any areas of pain or restriction
TREATMENT: Our physiotherapists use a variety of treatment techniques to help you reach your exercise and health goals:
- Manual Therapy: joint mobilizations, soft tissue release, and stretching to help improve range of motion
- Dry Needling: can be very effective in easing muscle tension and for trigger point release
- Therapeutic Modalities: ultrasound, hot/cold therapy, and electrostimulation can help with pain management and promoting healing
- Exercise: to strengthen any weak areas and ensure exercises are being done with proper form
- Education: we will discuss topics such as pre-hab, rehab, recovery, self-management and periodization in training
Click here to learn more about Physiotherapy.
The Chiropractor's Approach to Exercise Performance
ASSESSMENT:
Our chiropractors use thorough assessments to determine the best course of action:
- Head to toe assessment: we look for movement restrictions for the back, spine and peripheral joints
- Health History: learning about your past helps us better understand your current state of health and goals
- Movement: your everyday movement patterns tell us a lot about your personal anatomy and limitations
- Strength: looking for weakness or imbalance
TREATMENT: Our chiropractors use a variety of treatment techniques to help you perform:
- Manual Therapy: joint manipulations and mobilizations, soft tissue release, and stretching
- Therapeutic Modalities: ultrasound, hot/cold therapy, and electrostimulation may help with pain and/or tissue repair
- Exercise: to make sure you’re moving well
Click here to learn more about Chiropractic.
The Massage Therapist's Approach to Exercise Performance
ASSESSMENT: Our registered massage therapists will help by assessing the following:
- Patient History: to determine if aches and pains are manageable through massage, or if referral is necessary
- Observation: to look for joint irritation, inflammation, or changes in postural alignment
- TREATMENT: Our registered massage therapists use a variety of treatment techniques to help enhance muscle recovery and flexibility:
- Manual Therapy: joint mobilizations, soft tissue release, and stretching to help improve muscle tension and relaxation
Click here to learn more about Massage Therapy
