If you've started physical therapy recently, you probably left your first appointment with more than advice. You left with homework. A home exercise program (often shortened to HEP) is a set of exercises your therapist selects for you to do between visits, with specific sets, repetitions, and a schedule.
Why the work between visits matters
Clinic visits give you assessment, coaching, and a chance to adjust the plan. The quieter work happens between those visits. Depending on your condition and goals, your exercises may build strength, restore motion, or help you practise a movement until it feels more familiar. The schedule matters, but more is not automatically better: follow the dose your therapist gave you. The effort pays off in measurable ways. In a 2022 study of an exercise-based physical therapy programme for low back pain, patients who stuck with the prescribed programme had better functional outcomes than those who didn't.
That's also why your program is specific to you. Two people with the same diagnosis can get very different programs depending on their baseline strength, pain levels, goals, and how they respond to earlier exercises. Following a video you found online isn't a substitute, because it wasn't chosen for your situation.
What a typical program includes
- The exercises themselves, usually with a demonstration video or illustration.
- A dose: how many sets and repetitions, and how many days per week.
- Progression rules, so that when an exercise gets easier your therapist can advance it.
- Guidance about discomfort: what's expected, and what should make you stop.
How KineTrue fits in
KineTrue puts your assigned program on your home page so there's no guessing about what to do today. During a guided session, your device camera checks your movement and gives real-time form feedback, counts repetitions, and asks about pain before and after. Your therapist sees the results in their workspace, so your next appointment starts from what actually happened rather than from memory.
If an exercise causes sharp or worsening pain, stop and contact your therapist. Your program is a plan, not a test to push through.