06/25/2026
Join us July 14th at 7pm for Free Live Online CEUs!
Dr. Whitney Reese, PT, DPT, OCS, SCS, FAAOMPT will be hosting "Autoregulation in Rehabilitation: Integrating Pain Science, Readiness, and Exercise Prescription".
Register using this link:
https://tpta.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=2070398&group=
Exercise prescription is one of the most frequently utilized interventions in physical therapy practice; however, many rehabilitation programs continue to rely on predetermined protocols and time-based progression models despite significant patient-to-patient variability in recovery, pain response, and exercise tolerance. Contemporary evidence from rehabilitation, pain science, and exercise physiology suggests that exercise dosage should be individualized according to a patient's current readiness, recovery status, and symptom response.
Autoregulation provides a practical framework for integrating patient-reported outcomes, perceived exertion, symptom monitoring, and readiness assessment into rehabilitation decision-making. By utilizing low tech autoregulatory strategies such as Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE), Repetitions in Reserve (RIR), and symptom-monitoring models, physical therapists can better individualize exercise prescription, optimize loading, improve patient self-management, and enhance clinical reasoning.
This presentation provides clinicians with immediately applicable tools that can be integrated into orthopedic, sports medicine, and persistent pain rehabilitation settings without requiring specialized equipment or advanced technology.
INSTRUCTOR BIO
Whitney Reese, PT, DPT, OCS, SCS, FAAOMPT is a board-certified clinical specialist in Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy with more than 20 years of experience in orthopedic rehabilitation, sports medicine, and performance optimization. She serves as full-time faculty in a Doctor of Physical Therapy program and maintains clinical interests in load management, return-to-sport testing, biomechanics, exercise prescription, and integrating sports science principles into rehabilitation. Dr. Reese is currently pursuing a Doctor of Health Sciences degree with a focus on curriculum development, clinical education, and evidence-informed rehabilitation practice.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:
1. Define autoregulation and describe its theoretical foundation within the fitness-fatigue model, adaptive reserve framework, and contemporary rehabilitation practice.
2. Differentiate between traditional protocol-driven rehabilitation and autoregulated exercise prescription strategies utilized in contemporary rehabilitation practice.
3. Examine the relationship between pain science, tissue healing, symptom response, and exercise dosing to determine how autoregulation can support symptom-informed loading during rehabilitation.
4. Interpret subjective indicators of readiness, including Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE), Repetitions in Reserve (RIR), pain response, recovery status, and wellness measures when making exercise prescription decisions.
5. Apply autoregulation principles to modify exercise intensity, volume, frequency, and complexity across common rehabilitation populations.
