Remote Physio Appointments: Teaching Resistance Band Exercises

Kitiara Pascoe

03 / 04 / 2020 – 2 min read

Remote Physio Appointments: Teaching Resistance Band Exercises

Physio and sport therapy practices all over the world have empty waiting rooms while clients and patients stay at home. Being unable to meet up with physical therapy providers can be a problem for many, especially if they’re unable to get out to do other forms of movement and exercise.

Being forced to stay at home is presenting serious challenges but it’s also a time when we can all learn to adapt and find ways to overcome the problems. For physios and their clients, there’s no reason why guidance and exercises can’t be maintained via distance.

One of the simplest ways to help your patients out with movement exercises is by advocating the use of resistance bands. Affordable and adjustable to the individual, resistance band training can keep your patients fulfilling their physio exercises and build strength.

The Benefits of Remote Appointments

Many physio patients may struggle to get to your clinic ordinarily, especially if they’re having movement issues. While initial appointments may need to be done in-clinic, follow-ups often don’t require physical contact. Setting up a process for providing remote appointments can make your patients’ lives a lot easier, even under normal circumstances.

To provide remote appointments, you can use tools such as Skype or Zoom. These video calling platforms allow you to chat with your patients and demonstrate exercise as if they were in the same room as you.

Another benefit of remote guidance is the ability to film videos for your patients to reference later. After all, how many patients can remember the exact guidance you gave in an appointment? If you have the ability to record and send videos, they’ll be able to remind themselves of your advice.

Using Resistance Bands for Home Workouts 

The resistance band is probably one of the most favoured pieces of equipment for physiotherapists. Why? It’s so endlessly adaptable.

Resistance bands allow anyone to do at-home strength and flexibility exercises with the absolute minimum of equipment. They can be held, stood on or tied to create a huge variety of different movements and can be adjusted to replace other equipment that patients might no longer have access to.

One of the simplest ways of demonstrating different resistance band workouts remotely is to film them individually. This allows you to explain each exercise and show it, without having to film it in a sequence multiple times for different patients.

By filming each exercise separately and uploading the videos to your website or via YouTube, you can put specific sequences together for individual patients, directing them to the correct exercises for them.

The Best Resistance Bands for Home Workouts

When recommending which resistance bands patients should use for home workouts, it’s common to simply recommend the cheap latex bands. These come with a host of problems though, not least because they’re only cheap on a long wholesale roll.

Latex allergies are increasingly common and people can develop allergies to latex at any point, especially if they’re in contact with it regularly. This makes latex resistance bands unsuitable to be part of a home workout.

Latex resistance bands have a limited lifespan and corrode easily if left on windowsills or other hot places. As they can develop tacky patches, they become uncomfortable to use after a while.

Instead, fabric resistances bands are preferable.

The Benefits of Fabric Resistance Bands

Fabric resistance bands, like our SpoBand range, have none of the downsides seen in latex bands. They’re made with rubber or latex but are covered in fabric to protect skin from direct contact.

They’re also more solidly constructed and won’t snap like purely latex bands. With integrated loops, the resistance level can be adjusted to suit the exercise and individual.

The best fabric bands are also washable in a normal washing machine. This is hugely important to prevent bacterial growth and get rid of sweat and dirt. Cheap latex bands typically can’t be put through the wash and are hard to clean well by hand.

 The Flexibility of Resistance Bands

A resistance band is not just small and affordable, it’s also not an intimidating piece of equipment. There is no other piece of home workout equipment that can be used for so many applications, physical issues and by such a huge range of people.

By offering guided resistance band training remotely, you can continue to help patients through periods of isolation as well as into the future, where attending an in-person appointment might be unnecessarily difficult.

If you’re looking for fabric resistance bands, check out our SpoBands. They’re built to last and provide you and your patients with a piece of equipment that can do whatever you ask of it.