Why Home Exercise Programs Feel Broken (And How to Fix Them)

If you ask physios what frustrates them most about private practice, you’ll hear plenty: admin, cancellations, insurance forms. But one gripe rarely makes the list, even though it happens every single day:

Home exercise programs.

On the surface, it seems simple — send your patient a couple of exercises, keep them moving between sessions, job done. But anyone who has ever sat down to actually make a HEP knows the reality is far messier.

The Never-Ending Search

You open your exercise software, type in “lunge,” and are greeted with 12 slightly different videos. None of them look quite like the one you taught. One is too advanced, another is too generic, another shows a technique you wouldn’t actually cue.

So what do you do? You pick the “least-wrong” one, then write a long essay underneath explaining how to ignore half of it and focus on the tweaks you want.

Multiply that by 10 patients a day and suddenly you’re less of a physio and more of a part-time editor.

The Patient’s Perspective

Here’s the kicker: after all that work, patients still come back confused.

They watch the video, notice it doesn’t match what you showed in clinic, and start doubting themselves. Some improvise. Some give up. And some never open the program at all.

It’s no wonder adherence rates for HEPs are so low — if the tools feel clunky and inconsistent, patients won’t engage.

A Broken System

Let’s call it for what it is: the current way of creating HEPs is broken. It steals 10–15 minutes of your time per patient, produces generic content that doesn’t truly match your prescription, and leaves patients underwhelmed.

Everyone loses: you waste time, and they lose motivation.

How Preve Fixes It

Preve flips the model entirely. Instead of spending extra time searching, tweaking, and typing, you just run your consult as normal. As you teach, cue, and correct your patient, Preve is listening.

When the session ends, the program is already built. Automatically.

Why This Matters

Physios don’t need more admin disguised as “software.” What we need are tools that actually free up time while improving patient outcomes.

By delivering programs that mirror the clinic experience, Preve helps patients stay engaged, stick to their exercises, and see progress — which means fewer cancellations and faster recoveries.

And for physios, it means hours back each week, less frustration, and the freedom to focus on what we trained for: helping people move better.

Conclusion

Home exercise programs shouldn’t feel like homework for physios and guesswork for patients. With Preve, the program builds itself — and finally makes sense to the person who matters most: the patient.