REHB1001 Chap.13 Exercise Therapy Principles and Prescription
Exercise Therapy Principles and Prescription
The exercise theory series of Weeks 10 and 11 turns the course's reasoning into a programme. This chapter defines physical activity, exercise and therapeutic exercise, explains the four principles of overload, specificity, individuality and reversibility, and works a full prescription from the lecture's numbers: the adult aerobic guideline, percentage of one-repetition maximum, sets, repetitions and frequency.
It adds the pain monitoring zones, the FITT principle and the four-phase progression from range and pain relief to the person's own goals. The free example checks a client's weekly minutes against the guideline, and the paid pages build a full strength prescription from a repetition maximum.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Physical activity, exercise and therapeutic exercise
- 02
Overload, specificity, individuality, reversibility
- 03
Tissue healing and early loading
- 04
The FITT principle
- 05
Repetitions, sets and repetition maximum
- 06
Pain monitoring zones
- 07
Progression in four phases
Worked example · free
Checking weekly activity against the adult guideline
- +1Walking: 20 × 4 = 80 minutes; cycling: 15 × 2 = 30 minutes.
- +1Total: 80 + 30 = 110 minutes of moderate activity, which is 40 minutes short of 150.
- +1Next step: add time gradually, for example lengthening sessions, and add strength training twice a week as the guideline suggests.
Key terms
- Therapeutic exercise
- Planned movements, postures or activities that remediate impairment and restore function.
- Overload
- Exercising beyond what a system is used to, with recovery, to produce a training effect.
- Specificity
- The principle that a muscle adapts to the range and type of work it performs.
- Repetition maximum
- The greatest load moved with control through full range a set number of times.
- FITT principle
- Frequency, intensity, time and type, the components of an exercise prescription.
- Reversibility
- The principle that training gains are lost unless used or maintained.
- Periodisation
- Dividing training into planned cycles to manage load and avoid overtraining.
Exercise Therapy Principles and Prescription FAQ
What is the adult physical activity guideline in the course?
The lecture, citing the American College of Sports Medicine and American Heart Association, gives 30 minutes of moderate cardio on five days, 150 minutes in total, or 20 minutes of vigorous cardio on three days with strength training twice a week. For additional benefit it suggests 300 minutes of moderate activity.
What load should an older person lift for strength?
The prescription lecture lists 40 to 50% of one-repetition maximum for older individuals, within a strength programme of 2 to 4 sets two or three times a week on non-consecutive days with about 2 to 3 minutes' rest. Calculate the load from a tested maximum rather than guessing.
How much pain is acceptable during exercise?
The lecture's pain monitoring zones are 0 to 3 out of 10 as safe, 4 to 5 as acceptable and 6 to 10 as excessive. Exercise in the safe or acceptable zone can usually continue or progress, while excessive pain is a signal to regress the load, range or speed.
What does FITT stand for?
Frequency, how many times a week; intensity, the level of resistance or effort; time, how long the activity lasts; and type, the mode of exercise, including how much assistance is given and whether movements are open or closed chain. Case 4 asks you to apply it with progression to a home programme.
How does the course time the phases of tissue healing?
The exercise principles lecture gives inflammation as lasting 2 to 7 days after injury, proliferation 4 to 6 weeks, and remodelling beginning about two weeks after injury. Topic 5 prints slightly different bands, so quote each with its lecture and remember both say loading should begin early and gently.
What are the four principles of exercise therapy?
Overload, exercising beyond what the body is used to with recovery; specificity, training the range and type of muscle work the task needs; individuality, recognising that each person responds differently; and reversibility, the loss of gains that are not used or maintained.
Exam move
Learn the dose tables by writing them out for strength, endurance, range of motion and stretching. Then take two invented patients and write a full FITT prescription with every calculation shown. Practise explaining each of the four principles with an example, and rehearse the pain zones until you can classify any score.
Before the quiz, write the strength, endurance, stretching and range of motion doses from memory, then check them against your notes.
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