Often in Physiotherapy, patients present with pain caused from overusing the wrong muscles to achieve a movement goal e.g. running, throwing. This means that a muscle or a group of muscles have been incorrectly and repetitively used to achieve a movement, instead of the right muscles because we are unable to recruit the right muscles for the job. For example, a patient presents with pain located at the front of their shoulder. This may have resulted from over use of the pectoral, upper trapezius and biceps muscles when the back muscles and rotator cuff muscles were weak or not recruited efficiently in throwing.
Our bodies are amazing. They will achieve many of the physical tasks we set out to do, like running, jumping, hopping, throwing. When the right muscles are recruited for the movement pattern required, everything works fine and there is no pain. However, when we develop a habit of utilising the wrong muscles because the right muscles are weak or not efficiently recruited, then we develop pain.
To help you with this, Physiotherapists give exercises. These exercises often target the activation and motor control of the muscles that not efficiently recruited or that are not as strong. As explained in the video below, practice of these exercises help to improve the motor recruitment strategy by developing access to the correct neural pathways faster and more efficient. This might be attributed to thickening of the myelin sheath around nerves.
Remember, coordination is built on repetitions whether correct or incorrect. Effective practice/ exercises needs to be consistent and intensely focused on targeting weaknesses.
Also, review the video below on tips to improve the quality of the practice of your exercises to achieve recovery.