• Exercise
• Exercise Rehabilitation
• Injuries
• Rehabilitation
• Sports Rehabilitation Programs

Clear clinical reasoning relating to appropriate progression and regression of rehabilitation is essential to achieve positive clinical outcomes. A theoretical model to assist practitioners in this respect has previously been described.1 This model (figure 1) provides a visual means for clinicians to represent modification of rehabilitation stimuli with regard to progression of a single exercise.

In brief, the model encourages clinicians to regress modifiable variables within an exercise (eg, sets, reps, speed) to facilitate effective introduction of external stimuli or a change of environment. While useful as a reference for clinicians on progression of single exercises, the original model is limited in its ability to describe progressions within a multidimensional rehabilitation programme. The model suggests that a patient must be able to fully execute each stage of an exercise progression before the reintroduction of previously learnt components. In practice, rehabilitation is rarely linear with many …