10/09/2025
Manning Physio's Exercise of the Month: The Hopping Movement 🤸♀️
This month, we're spotlighting hopping movements! Hopping exercises are an invaluable tool at Manning Physio, serving a dual purpose in lower limb rehabilitation. We use them as a test for readiness to return to sport and as a key component of our rehab programs.
Hopping is a fantastic way to measure a patient's progress and ensure they can handle the demands of their sport safely. By moving from simple on-the-spot hops to more complex multiple hops with changes in direction, we can progressively improve a patient's lower limb function. These movements are specifically designed to improve strength, enhance balance, and restore neuromuscular control, all of which are critical for an athlete to perform at their best and reduce their risk of re-injury.
In the photo for this post, you can see Scott, our physio, performing the hop-and-return test on our force decks. These decks are a sophisticated piece of technology that allows us to precisely measure deficits and improvements in a patient's lower limb function. The hop-and-return movement is a mid-level challenge where the person starts on one leg, hops to the side (e.g., right leg hopping to the left with the right foot), and then quickly hops back to the starting position, "sticking" the landing with control. This gives us crucial data on their power, stability, and symmetry between legs, helping us to guide their rehabilitation with precision and confidence.