rehabilitation.

NOUN | the act of restoring something that has been damaged to its former condition.

Rehabilitation is not simple. It is complex. It requires skill in all areas - evaluation, interpersonal communication, manual therapy, exercise prescription and instruction, training, use of modalities, and constant re-evaluation. Rehabilitation requires touch, which is the most important part of the skill needed within manual therapy. It relies heavily on each clinician’s connection with each individual patient, and each clinician’s ability to tailor his or her skills to what each specific patient needs.

Rehabilitation is a word that is used often and thrown around far too easily - but the importance of it is not something to be taken lightly. It is our business, our purpose, and our meaning in life.

mobility.

NOUN | the ability to move or be moved freely and easily.

Mobility is something we all must have to do the things that we want. We have to have mobility in our spines to pick something up off the floor, mobility in our knees to squat down and pick up our children, and mobility in our necks to look each direction before turning out of our driveway. Without mobility in one area of our bodies, other areas compensate and pick up the slack, and this is often where injuries arise.

Restoring mobility is often one of the first steps in the rehabilitation process. This is accomplished through both manual therapy as well as therapeutic exercise.

stability.

NOUN | the strength to stand or endure: the property of a body that causes it when disturbed from a condition of equilibrium or steady motion to develop forces or moments that restore the original condition.

Stability requires that mobility has been achieved. Stability is the ability to hold areas with mobility still against outside forces, and is required in all complex tasks of the human body. Obviously, this is the case for athletic and sports movements, but it is also the case for simple movements and tasks such as standing to put one’s pants on, or walking up the stairs.

Developing and maintaining stability is important in rehabilitation, as the lack of stability is often a source of pain.

power.

NOUN | physical strength and force exerted by something or someone

VERB | move or travel with great speed or force

We all know that power within athletics is important. A necessity, in fact. But not as many of us know that power is important with every day tasks as well. Yes, it requires strength to walk up the stairs, but it also requires application of that strength in a forceful way to actually move the weight of your body up against gravity. Power isn’t just sprinting speed or vertical jumps, it is the functional way that we use our strength and our bodies to accomplish the tasks we do every day or the activities we want to do every day.