Social support and therapeutic relationships intertwine to influence exercise behavior in people with sport-related knee injuries.

Researchers interviewed 15 people recovering from sports-related knee injuries who took part in a virtual physiotherapy program called SOAR, which combines education and exercise therapy for people at risk of early osteoarthritis. By analyzing what participants said about their experience, the team found that social support and the quality of the relationship between therapist and patient appeared to work together to shape whether people actually did their exercises, both before and after the program. Three patterns stood out: people valued being treated as whole human beings rather than just a set of symptoms, they wanted to feel like partners working with their physio rather than passive recipients of treatment, and they needed ongoing support over time rather than one-off interactions.

The findings suggest that how supported and understood people feel may be connected to whether they stick with their exercise routine, and that this connection may run partly through the therapeutic relationship itself.

This study looked at how the people around you and your relationship with your physiotherapist influence whether you actually keep doing your exercises when recovering from a knee injury. Researchers spoke with fifteen people (about two-thirds were women, most in their mid-twenties to thirties) about their experience in a virtual rehab program, and three things came through clearly: people felt more motivated when their physio saw them as a complete person with feelings and life circumstances, not just an injury to fix.

They also did better when they felt like genuine partners in their own recovery, working together with their physio rather than being told what to do. Finally, people needed their physio to stay involved over the longer term, not just give them exercises once and disappear.

The study suggests that feeling genuinely supported and understood by your physio may help you stick with your recovery work, though more research is needed to understand exactly how this works.

This is a summary of research, not medical advice. Talk to your own healthcare provider about anything affecting your care.

This interpretative description study offers a small window into how social support and therapeutic relationship quality may interact to influence exercise adherence in sport-related knee injury. The sample was modest (15 participants, predominantly female, median age 26 years) and drawn from a virtual intervention context, so generalizability to in-person or other settings remains uncertain.

The three themes generated reflect what participants themselves articulated as meaningful: holistic recognition, collaborative partnership, and sustained engagement over time. Notably, the authors observed that therapeutic relationship appeared to be a thread running through all three themes, suggesting it may be a key mechanism linking perceived support to behavior, though the abstract does not elaborate on the directionality or specificity of this relationship.

The work does not report outcome data (exercise adherence rates, symptom changes, or other metrics), so whether participants who experienced stronger social support actually completed more exercises remains unstated. The findings align with broader literature on therapeutic alliance and adherence in rehabilitation and may inform how education and exercise programs are structured, particularly in virtual contexts where relationship building requires intentional design.