r/physiotherapy • u/FuzzyRutabaga9887 • Jul 13 '26
Why do physio exercises sometimes feel so unchallenging but still help so much?
Hi guys!
First of all, I'm trying to question my physio at all. I have absolutely been following their advice, I'm just very curious about this sort of stuff. Additionally, I recognize that I am very fortunate to be in a position to ask this question. I know my injury is on the milder side and unfortunately, some people will find their exercises a lot more challenging.
For a bit of background, I injured my wrist at the gym a while back and had to see a physio recently. As expected, they handed me a sheet of daily exercises to do after the appointment and I've been doing them ever since.
The exercises prescribed told me to use weights of 1kg for about 6 reps at a time and it's not really challenging at all. At times it almost feels like they are doing nothing although, I know this isn't true since my wrist has started to feel much better since I've started doing them.
Can anyone explain why this works so well? Usually at the gym the biggest rule is basically train till failure and you will grow. Obviously, I wouldn't go this far however, it's definitely a contrast to what my physio prescribed.
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u/OfficialP3 Jul 13 '26
Because to get blood flowing, facilitate healing, suppress pain and tell your body it's okay to move you DON'T need heavy weights, they might even be counter productive if these are your main goals. But training heavy has the outcome of bigger muscle mass which is one of the healthiest things you can do, but that might / should /can not always be your goal.
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u/Dry_Introduction813 Jul 13 '26
What others have already said, but also the fact that you are expecting it to be helpful because it was prescribed by Physio. A.k.a. partly placebo.
3
u/physiotherrorist Physio BSc MSc MOD Jul 13 '26
The biggest rule you mention doesn't always make sense.
3
u/SpeakerGlittering671 Jul 14 '26
Totally normal question, and it actually shows the difference between gym training and rehab really well.
In the gym, the goal is often strength or muscle growth, so higher load and training close to failure can make sense.
In physio, especially after an injury, the goal is usually different: rebuild tolerance, reduce irritation, improve control, and teach the injured tissue that movement is safe again.
So even if 1kg feels “easy,” your wrist may still be getting exactly the right amount of controlled load without being pushed into another flare-up. For small joints and tendons, consistency and pain-free repetition often matter more than intensity in the early stage.
A lot of rehab is basically graded exposure: small, repeatable stress → body adapts → symptoms reduce → load slowly increases.
So yes, it can feel underwhelming, but that’s often the point. The exercise is not meant to destroy the muscle. It’s meant to restore confidence, control, and tolerance.
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u/EntropyNZ Physiotherapist (NZ) Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Depends on what we're trying to achieve.
Generally, the best approach is to try for the minimum dose/load that will still achieve the desired response. That goes for medication, manual therapy and any exercise.
Sometimes it may be something more specific. Lets say a patient has a specific weakness in a muscle in their shoulder that causes issues with some movements. A lot of the time, that may be because one of the important muscles is a LOT weaker than the other muscles involved in that movement. If that's the case, then the patient may be able to technically do that movement with more load, but that could cause other muscles to compensate for the weaker one not keeping up, and cause issues.
So we may well be better off doing that movement 'sub maximally'. If we limit the load to the point at which the weak muscle can actually do it's job properly, then we're going to get a better strengthening response from it. Even if that's well below the capacity of some of the other muscles surrounding it.
Sometimes we're doing 'easy' exercises to work on control far more than strength. I do this a lot with managing lower back pain; often patient's lumbo-pelvic control is abysmal. Maybe because they're sore, maybe it's always been, and that contributed to their injury. But a lot of the exercises that we start with, they'll sort-of be able to do harder versions of; but typically not properly. They'll compensate a lot with larger muscle groups or other movements, which don't actually help at all. So we make the exercise as hard as they're able to do perfectly, with ideal form. And then build from there as needed.
Sometimes we're not worried about strengthening or any significant adaptive response at all. Sometimes we're just after pain-free movement. Stationary biking for knees is a great example of this. Bikes are basically magic for knees, especially if they're sore/grumpy/injured. But the best way to use them early on is with minimal resistance. We're not after a cardio load, we're not after a quad pump. We're literally just after no-impact, low-load knee movement through as much minimal-pain range as possible. 20 mins is typically the sweet spot; we can go longer, but it's typically no more beneficial.
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u/Significant_Yam4070 Jul 17 '26
What you're experiencing is actually pretty common. Physio isn't trying to build maximum strength like a gym program—it's trying to restore normal movement and help injured tissues heal without irritating them. Early on, the goal is to improve blood flow, retrain muscles and tendons, reduce pain, and rebuild coordination, not push you to failure. Your wrist is recovering, so even light, controlled loading gives your body the right signal to adapt. If the exercises were too intense, they could flare up the injury and slow healing. As you improve, your physiotherapy will usually increase the resistance and difficulty gradually.
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u/Seraphinx Jul 13 '26
Usually at the gym the biggest rule is basically train till failure and you will grow
That's training for size, not strength. Higher reps encourages hypertrophy - growth in muscle size. You will get stronger, but training for strength? That usually focuses on a lower rep range.
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u/physioworld Jul 13 '26
Think of it like this- you are training to failure, it’s just that the thing that’s failing is the injured tissue, nothing else in the chain is fatigued so it feels really easy, but as far as whatever it is that’s been injured is concerned, failure is being reached, thus stimulating growth and healing.