Physiotherapist Guided Exercise Rehabilitation

We understand that returning to exercise can be challenging. Many people struggle with ongoing pain, injury setbacks, or limitations in their movement and strength. Whether you’re recovering from an injury, dealing with chronic pain, or wanting to improve your physical performance, the right approach to exercise can make all the difference.

Unfortunately, generic fitness programs or self-guided rehabilitation often fall short, leading to frustration, plateaus, or even re-injury. That’s where we come in.

At Move Physiotherapy, we bridge the gap between rehabilitation and performance training. Our exercise rehabilitation and personal training programs are designed and supervised by experienced physiotherapists who understand injury management, biomechanics, and strength conditioning. 

We offer physio-led rehabilitation programs that help rebuild strength, mobility, and confidence after injury. These programs have a strong emphasis on technique, gradual progression, and injury prevention. Our approach ensures that exercise load and intensity are adjusted appropriately to improve your physical well-being safely and effectively.

Each of our clinics is equipped with a full rehabilitation gym, housing all the exercise equipment necessary for your recovery and performance. We also offer Clinical Pilates at our Booragoon location to complement rehabilitation programs. To cater to different preferences, we provide both one-on-one and small group sessions.

Maintaining Peak Physical Health

Maintaining peak physical health is one of the biggest predictors of longevity. At a bare minimum we should be achieving 150-300 minutes of moderate intensity exercise each week, or 75 to 150 minutes of higher intensity exercise.

If we take this one step further – to maximise our lifespan, but also improve our health-span – we need to go beyond this recommendation. For example, achieving just 2 times this recommendation – or approximately 150-300 minutes each week – can decrease all cause mortality between 21-23%. Achieving 300-599 minutes each week pushes this figure to between 26-31%.

However, we must also include resistance training. The average 30-year old has lost 25% of their muscle mass by the time they turn 50. Aerobic training alone is not enough.

Resistance training, and thereby maintaining our muscle mass preserves our bone density. Osteoporosis – or a loss of bone density – impacts 1 in 3 women, and 1 in 5 males over 50. Combined with a loss of balance and lower limb strength, we now experience falls and other signs of frailty typically seen in our 70s as early as our late 40s. Osteoporosis dramatically increases the likelihood of fracture following injury – most commonly affecting hips, forearms and the spine.

Lower limb strength is further a predictor of our longevity. A study of over 1,000 participants demonstrated that those in the upper bracket of quadriceps (leg) strength had a 75% decreased risk of all cause mortality compared to those with the weakest quadriceps.

Most people have heard of the ‘sitting:rising’ test. This Brazilian research examined the ability of 2,002 participants to sit down onto the floor – starting in a standing position – and stand up again without the use of hands or knees for support. You score yourself 5 points for being able to sit down without support, and a further 5 points for being able to stand up without support. Each time you use a knee or hand you subtract a point. In this study those scoring 8 or below were twice as likely to die within 6 years. Those who scored 3 or below were 3-5 times more likely to die!

This research is a bit grim. It does not take into account other health markers, injury histories or many other factors. However, it does show the importance of maintaining our strength and mobility.

Strength training also significantly wards off cognitive decline, compared with those who engage only in walking type activity.

How Your Physiotherapist Can Help

Most people consider their Physiotherapist as someone who can simply return them from pain or injury to normal function. However, we are also best suited to guide you through an exercise program that maximises your strength with minimal injury risk.

Often this includes pushing people out of their comfort zones. We utilise our gym facilities including barbells, kettlebells and all of your traditional gym equipment; and encourage people to push through their physical boundaries – lifting heavier weights, challenging mobility and thereby seeing significant improvement.

In addition to their Exercise Science and Physiotherapy studies, our therapists have personal backgrounds in a gym atmosphere – and more so, they have a passion for this exercise.

We offer comprehensive 45-minute Initial Assessments to examine your movement and understand your goals and injury history. Commonly these goals include improving strength and muscle mass, decreasing fat and maintaining mobility through the lifespan. We can then structure an appropriate program with suitable progressions to ensure you reach these goals in a timely manner.