I was talking this weekend with my son and clinical intern from last summer who was visiting, and my son all of a sudden turned to us and said, "You physical therapists dole out exercises like a doctor hands out medicine. Is that what you do every day?" We both just looked at him and laughed. "Well," we told him, "I guess we do." Exercise is our prescription for our patients to be well, just like a patient who is a diabetic or has high blood pressure needs medicine from their physician to be well.

Physical therapists follow the FITT principle with their patients. FITT is an acronym for their exercise prescription for their patients. It stands for frequency, intensity, time and type of exercise. Each program is individualized and takes into account the patient's age, health issues, pain patterns, and past medical history. Therapists generally follow these guidelines when they put together an exercise regime for their patients in order to have the best outcomes. These four components insure patients will have the input they need to continue making gains in their health as they attempt to move forward.

Often I have heard my patients say that they were walking a mile three times a week, and they were losing weight at first and now they are not. Or that they were lifting weights or doing yoga twice a week, but now it just doesn't seem to be enough to continue losing weight and keep their flexibility. Well, the reason for this is because the body begins to adapt, and reaches a plateau in the regimen they are doing. The body knows, through repeated time frames, that it only needs to expend so much energy once it has done the same activity so long, and it will slow down its metabolism in order to be able to do that same routine. This is why change is good when it comes to exercises for your health.

In rehabilitation, the physical therapist will look at your current health status and then decide how to help you reach your fitness goals. A rotator cuff tendonitis is treated differently with FITT than a shoulder adhesive capsulitis. A jumpers' knee is treated differently than a patello-femoral dysfunction. This is where therapists can really help our patients because we know when to stop and start certain training, and when it is time to add more to the program, etc. This is part of our specialty: knowing when and how to intervene for the best outcomes.

We have people training for Ironman, club volleyball, soccer, dance and tennis, just to name a few. Our job is to keep them up and moving while healing from their injuries. If you have an old injury that is nagging you while you train and you just can't seem to get better, or a new injury that happened while training, don't wait. Let your physical therapist help keep you going and help you know the best way to stay fit.

FITT Principle

Frequency: How many days a week you are doing cardio and/or strength training.

Intensity: How fast or slow you are training or perhaps you mix it up throughout the workout.

Time: How long you are doing the aerobic and anaerobic activities, 30-60 minutes, and how long of each.

Type: What kind of exercises are you doing: Cardio, strengthening, swimming, running, biking, cross fit, eccentric, concentric, closed-chain, open-chain training, etc. All these exercises can yield different types of results.

Sheree DiBiase, PT, is the owner of Lake City Physical Therapy. She and her staff can be reached in Coeur d'Alene at (208) 667-1988 and in the Spokane Valley at (509) 891-2623. They would be happy to answer your FITT questions, so you can train at your highest potential.