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Therapeutic Exercises

Describe how therapeutic exercise promotes healthy lifestyles

Therapeutic exercises aim at improving and restoring the quality of life to a person. Quality of life can be achieved through the use of a systematic and scientific application of exercise and movement experiences that are aimed at developing and restoring muscular strength, flexibility, and endurance (De Vries, et al.). Besides, it also promotes neuromuscular coordination and cardiovascular efficiency. In another benefit associated with the application of exercise, other health, and performance factors that improve the overall wellbeing of a person is achieved, and they include such benefits as mental and psychological fitness.

Exercises, in general, are performed to keep the body fit and thus help the person maintain their physical and physiological health. It is known that exercises also play a crucial role in maintaining balanced emotions, and this is attributed to the production of endorphins during exercise that keeps the person happy. As stated above, the primary aim of therapeutic exercises includes enhancing endurance and muscle strength. At this point, the body needs to endure the weight exerted by the rest of the body, and therefore such muscles in the legs need to be strong and able to support the body for a long duration of time. However, it should be noted that for a body to maintain strength and endurance, flexibility is required, and this is achieved after an extended duration of exposure to physical exercises.

A successful exercise program also helps in restoring the nervous system control of the muscle function. The nervous control of the muscles can be achieved through sensory-motor balancing, aerobic conditioning, and the strengthening of inhibited weak muscles. Besides, the nervous system also takes charge in the control of stretching of short, tight, hypertonic muscle to symmetry as well as the restoration of symmetrical movement patterns. As a result, the body is able to achieve full-body restoration that includes endurance, physical strength, and flexibility.

Discuss the similarities and differences between habilitation and rehabilitation.

Habilitation refers to the process and treatments that lead to the acquisition of skills and functions that are normal and expected for a person of a specific age and status (Schalock and William). For example, habilitation may include the process of equipping a child with speech as a result of delayed speech developed on their age. Rehabilitation, on the other hand, refers to the process and treatments that aim at restoring the skills and functions that were previously acquired but have been lost due to such events such as injury, disease, or behavioral characteristics such as voluntary inactivity (Cattelani, Marina and Pierluigi). An example of rehabilitation is that a person being helped by a therapist to recall their feelings on someone. Based on the definitions, the primary difference between the two terms is that habilitation emphasizes on equipping a person with new skills that are expected of their age and gender. However, rehabilitation involves restoring of previously lost skills due to injury. However, the two are similar in that they focus on developing or improving the body systems so that injury and diseases are less likely to happen. Another similarity between habilitation and rehabilitation is that they focus on the act of learning skills.

Works Cited

Cattelani, Raffaella, Marina Zettin, and Pierluigi Zoccolotti. “Rehabilitation treatments for adults with behavioral and psychosocial disorders following acquired brain injury: A systematic review.” Neuropsychology review 20.1 (2010): 52-85.

De Vries, N. M., et al. “Effects of physical exercise therapy on mobility, physical functioning, physical activity and quality of life in community-dwelling older adults with impaired mobility, physical disability and/or multi-morbidity: a meta-analysis.” Ageing research reviews 11.1 (2012): 136-149.

Schalock, Robert L., and William E. Kiernan. Habilitation planning for adults with disabilities. Springer Science & Business Media, 2012.