Exercise Essentials for Physiotherapists

What really makes an exercise prescription “essential”? Join Bruce Craven for a dynamic, interactive weekend course challenging how we think about exercise.

This interactive weekend course challenges physiotherapists to move beyond default exercise selection and think more deeply about the science, reasoning, and clinical decision-making that should shape every prescription.

Led by Bruce Craven, Exercise Essentials in Physiotherapy brings together principles from physiotherapy, sport science, kinesiology, pathology, performance, and motor learning to help clinicians better understand what matters most when prescribing exercise. Participants will be encouraged to reflect on their own clinical reasoning, identify gaps in their knowledge, and develop a more integrated approach to exercise selection and progression.

The course begins on Friday evening by establishing a shared language around assessment, treatment planning, client goals, and the “why now” behind clinical decision-making. Saturday and Sunday then move into two days of interactive, case-based learning focused on applying exercise principles to real clinical and performance scenarios.

Course topics will include force, velocity, impulse, power, gravity, linear and rotational movement, motor learning, cueing, energy systems, breathing, core function, sympathetic response, stimulus–perception–response, and whole–part–whole learning. These concepts will then be applied to common clinical and performance areas including running, ACL rehabilitation, overhead throwing and hitting, jumping and hopping, speed, quickness, agility, and return-to-performance decision-making.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Identify the key clinical, biomechanical, physiological, and performance factors that influence exercise prescription.
• Develop a clearer reasoning framework for selecting, modifying, and progressing exercises based on the client’s goals, presentation, and stage of recovery.
• Apply principles of force, power, motor learning, energy systems, breathing, and core function to common rehabilitation and performance scenarios.
• Better connect subjective history, objective assessment findings, clinical problems, treatment timelines, and exercise choices.
• Explore exercise prescription strategies for running, ACL rehabilitation, overhead sport, jumping, agility, and return-to-performance programming.
• Reflect on personal clinical reasoning habits and identify opportunities to strengthen the integration of science into everyday physiotherapy practice.

This course is designed for physiotherapists who want to sharpen their exercise prescription skills, challenge their assumptions, and leave with a more thoughtful, practical, and performance-informed approach to rehabilitation.