26/12/2025
The growing trend of prescribing a fixed set of exercises on social media to treat knee or shoulder injuries is a concerning oversimplification of sports medicine.
Musculoskeletal pain is multifactorial and similar symptoms may arise from entirely different pathologies, load errors, movement patterns and psychosocial contributors.
Evidence consistently shows that individualised, assessment-based rehabilitation leads to better clinical outcomes than standardised exercise protocols.
Structural findings on imaging often correlate poorly with pain and function, reinforcing the need for thorough clinical and functional assessment before rehabilitation is prescribed. Exercises are tools within a broader clinical reasoning process not treatments in isolation. Social media should guide individuals toward professional assessment not replace it.
In evidence-based sports medicine assessment must always precede prescription.