Rehabilitation and Therapeutic Exercise Flashcards

Aquatic therapy is advantageous for rehabilitation primarily because water provides:

Answer: Buoyancy to reduce weight-bearing and resistance for movement

Water buoyancy reduces effective body weight (up to 90% at neck depth), allowing earlier exercise with reduced joint loading while providing resistance in all directions.

Which physiological adaptation primarily explains strength gains in the first 4–6 weeks of resistance training in a deconditioned patient?

Answer: Neural adaptations (motor unit recruitment and synchronization)

Early strength gains are predominantly neural: improved motor unit recruitment, rate coding, and synchronization before significant muscle hypertrophy occurs.

Open kinetic chain (OKC) exercises differ from closed kinetic chain (CKC) exercises in that OKC exercises:

Answer: Allow the distal segment to move freely in space

In OKC exercises the distal segment (hand or foot) moves freely, allowing isolated muscle activation; in CKC the distal segment is fixed, promoting co-contraction.

Deload weeks are programmed into therapeutic exercise plans to:

Answer: Allow tissue recovery and prevent overtraining and overuse injury

Planned deload periods reduce volume or intensity to allow accumulated fatigue to dissipate, enabling tissue repair and supercompensation.

Which muscle action is involved when a patient slowly lowers a heavy object from a shelf?

Answer: Eccentric elbow flexion (biceps lengthening under load)

Lowering a heavy object slowly requires the biceps to control the descent eccentrically — generating force while lengthening to brake against gravity.

Functional electrical stimulation (FES) in rehabilitation is used to:

Answer: Electrically activate paralyzed or weakened muscles to produce functional movement

FES delivers electrical impulses to nerves or muscles to produce coordinated contractions in paralyzed or weak muscles, facilitating functional tasks like grasping or walking.