The effects of a concussion can vary widely, including symptoms like headaches, dizziness, and difficulty concentrating, making everyday activities challenging. While it might seem like staying in bed until all symptoms resolve is the best approach, rest alone isn’t enough. Research has shown that early, guided concussion rehabilitation exercises play a crucial role in helping your brain and body heal.
At Propel Physiotherapy, we guide our clients through structured, safe exercises that address dizziness, coordination, neck pain, tailored to each person’s specific needs. In this article, we’ll introduce some of the most effective exercises we use in our clinic, explaining how they work and how they can help you feel like yourself again.
Table of Contents:
- Understanding concussion recovery
- Concussion rehabilitation exercises
- Vision and vestibular exercises
- Cardiovascular exercises
- Neck strengthening and stretching exercises
- Conclusion
Understanding Concussion Recovery
A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or body that causes the brain to move rapidly back and forth. Concussions can happen in various settings—from sports injuries and car accidents to slips and falls—and they don’t always involve a direct hit to the head.
When a concussion occurs, it’s not just the physical impact that affects the brain. This sudden movement can create chemical changes in the brain, sometimes stretching and damaging brain cells. The injury triggers a cascade of chemical changes that disrupt how brain cells function and communicate. Because the brain is the body’s central command center, these disruptions can lead to a range of symptoms affecting everything from mood and memory to physical balance and energy levels.
Common concussion symptoms include whiplash-like neck pain, dizziness or vestibular issues, mood shifts, reduced tolerance for exercise, and fatigue. These symptoms can significantly affect day-to-day life, and they underscore the importance of structured support in the recovery process.
This is where physiotherapy (PT) plays a vital role. Physiotherapists have the expertise to guide you through concussion recovery safely. They provide patient education on pacing and help you understand when it might be safe to gradually return to work, school, or physical activities.
Since no two concussions are the same, physiotherapists tailor treatment to each person’s unique symptoms and recovery pace, crafting a plan that may include exercises to improve balance, mobility, and strength based on individual needs.
Concussion recovery needs to be structured and gradual to prevent symptom flare-ups. Often, the process starts with rest for the first 24-48 hours, after which light activities are reintroduced gradually.
Daily activities are added back in stages, and as symptoms improve, you can slowly increase your activity level. If symptoms worsen with activity, it’s a signal to scale back, as everyone has a unique threshold for exertion. Physiotherapists help you find this threshold, adjusting your recovery plan to ensure steady progress without setbacks.
While rest is essential initially, it’s not the sole path to recovery. Research has shown that a structured concussion rehabilitation exercise program, guided by a qualified clinician, can improve outcomes and speed recovery. There’s no universal timeline for returning to regular activities, but with a physiotherapist’s support, you can approach recovery confidently and safely, one step at a time.
Concussion Rehabilitation Exercises
Concussion rehabilitation exercises are a key part of the recovery journey, offering structured and targeted support for the diverse symptoms that can arise after a concussion. Our team of physiotherapists tailors each program to address common issues, needs and goals like enhancing visual coordination, reducing dizziness, relieving headaches and neck tension, and helping clients safely reintroduce physical activity.
Vision and Vestibular Exercises
Vision problems are very common following a concussion. Clients complain of eye strain, blurry vision, have difficulty reading or watching sports due to the inability of the eyes to work together. Vestibular exercises work to reduce feelings of dizziness and improve visual tracking. There are two main kinds of vestibular exercises.
Gaze Stabilization
Some people with concussion experience difficulty focusing their eyes on an object while their head is moving. Gaze stabilization exercises involve turning the head while keeping the eyes fixed on one spot to help improve eye focus during head movements.
Habituation exercises
Some people with concussion experience constant dizziness when they move around, while they are reading, or watching sports for a long time. Habituation exercises work by exposing patients to specific eye movements that bring on the dizziness, and slowly increase the duration they spend doing this movement.
The goal with habituation exercises is to get the brain used to the movement gradually. As the patient practices this movement overtime, then the dizziness associated with that movement reduces.
Cardiovascular Exercises
In the past, health professionals would recommend rest in a dark room with limited brain stimulation until symptoms subsided. However, research now shows that this approach can do more harm than good.
Introducing symptom-limited exercise, and doing it regularly, after a concussion helps with recovery. Concussed clients may worry about exercise when it increases their symptoms — like headaches and dizziness — because they are not sure how far to push into the symptom.
With the guidance of your physiotherapist, you can determine your threshold for exercise and begin working in this range. They will do this by tracking your heart rate to determine a point at which your symptoms get worse and will use this to provide an exercise program for you to ensure you exercise at your sub-symptom threshold.
Neck Strengthening and Stretching Exercises
With a concussion, people often experience tightness in their neck muscles as a result of whiplash. The muscles tighten and patients feel tension, pain, headaches and restriction in their neck movement.
Your physiotherapist will assess the restriction by looking at the range of motion in your neck and also pinpointing any muscles that could be resulting in the headache sensation. Your physiotherapist can do several things in order to help with the neck pain, this might include massage, IFC, heat, mobilizations and exercises, to improve your range of motion.
Conclusion
Recovering from a concussion takes time, patience, and the right approach. At Propel Physiotherapy, we understand that no two concussions are the same, and that’s why we offer personalized recovery plans tailored to each individual’s unique symptoms and progress.
Seeking guidance from a physiotherapist can make a significant difference in your recovery journey, providing you with the tools, education, and concussion rehabilitation exercises needed to safely get back to your regular activities.
Remember, recovery is a gradual process, and it’s normal to have good and bad days along the way. By following a structured plan and working closely with a physiotherapist, you can feel confident that you’re moving forward safely.
With a personalized approach and ongoing support, full recovery is possible—one step at a time.
Written by
