Rest Vs Exercise- Part 2

This is part 2 of a 3 part series to debunk the debate between rest vs exercises, the pros and cons as I see them and my preference of the two. 

Last week was part 1 on rest so if you haven't read that I recommend doing so first.

Exercise, what's the science behind them? Do they work? Would I recommend them?

Firstly, science. 

The intentions behind exercises are to utilise 2 key principles, the General Adaptation Principle (GAP) and how that applies to muscles and tendons (Davis’s Law).

GAP states if you subject a tissue to sub maximum load progressively the tissue will be behind to strength to help tolerate the load thus becoming stronger. 

Davis’s law is how this applies specifically to muscles or tendons which states muscles take 12-18 months to proliferate, or change. 

These are 2 very sound and strong principles to support exercise based approaches. 

However I have 3 main concerns, and we will work through them 1 at a time

My first concern is with “sub maximum”, the reason for this is the tissue needs to be able to tolerate the load and recovery before the next lot of stimulus. If the load is too big and the tissue does not recover, inflammation will gradually increase and the tissue will not become stronger. This often leads to more pain and not less pain. In specific situations like post surgery this approach has more merit because a person is going from minimal load due to a period of not moving post surgery and can gradually increase. If this is not you and you have chronic pain (anything longer than 3 months) and you then increase your load by adding in exercises on top of your day to day life you have then increased the load that was likely too much for you in the first place. 

Secondly, is the time frame. Thanks to Davis’s law we know muscle and tendons (soft tissues) take 12-18 months to proliferate or change. Most exercise based programs are for 6 weeks, im sure some will extend this beyond 6 weeks but im yet to find a program that is 52 weeks or longer yet. That means any benefit from 6 weeks of exercises will not be maintained after that time, meaning any benefit or relief gained will return afterwards. If anybody has spent time weight training they will sympathise with how difficult it is to even gain 3lb of muscle in a year or 5 KG of strength over 12 months, let alone 6 weeks. 

My third concern is one I experience every time I undertake an initial consultation with a client. The client tells me they have been told they have a muscle weakness and given an exercise for it. I then ask two questions;
How did they identify the muscle was weak, did they muscle test it for strength?

Did they investigate the muscle weakness to see if it was the muscle that was weak or whether the muscle not being controlled properly and was inhibited ( turned off by the brain)

Muscle weakness should never be presumed based on symptoms, as pain and weakness are two very different things. And muscle weakness should never be confused with inhibition. Muscles do not control themselves, they need to be communicated and controlled by the brain. This requires a clear signal from the brain, any miscommunications  or bad habits in the nervous system (brain) may result in what appears to be a weak muscle. However it is not weak, it is inhibited (turned off).