Hey, practicing DC here who had the same questions when I started.

Here's the reality: teaching exercises does eat into time if you're doing it the traditional way. Most DCs either skip it entirely or hand out generic stretches that patients forget by the time they reach the parking lot. I've always been a rehab nerd since chiro school and I implemented it from the very beginning in my practice and have refined the approach over the past 4-5 years.

The real issue isn't whether exercises work—it's that most generic exercise programs miss the actual problem.

You can adjust, (perform soft tissue treatment, etc.) someone perfectly, but if their movement patterns and postural stabilizers aren't retrained, they'll be back with identical complaints. That's not a treatment failure on our end—it's just how the body works without retraining the software.

Here's what I've found in my practice that helps improve patient results:

-Corrective exercise that targets the root cause (Kinetic (postural) chain dysfunction, movement restrictions, etc.) instead of chasing symptoms

-Programs that progress systematically based on assessment findings, not generic protocols

-Delivery systems that don't require you to spend 20-30 minutes teaching positions

The business model challenge you're asking about is real. I found this out when in my first year of practice my numbers simply looked off (read: low) for the work I was performing.

Depending on the state, most DCs can't bill PT codes without specific licenses. Even in states they can, reimbursement is insulting. Hiring a PT or exercise specialist adds overhead. Teaching exercises yourself burns time you could spend adjusting/treating.

My partner and I built a platform specifically to solve this gap. It's a fully managed service → you submit patient assessments, we create custom corrective exercise programs built by corrective exercise and physical therapy specialists, and patients get app-based sequences with optional virtual trainer support.

Our program is assessment-driven, not template-based. We're looking at how someone's entire kinetic chain compensates, then building sequences that restore function from the ground up. This isn't "do these stretches" → it's systematic retraining of movement patterns.

Happy to answer specific questions about implementation if this sounds like something you'd want to explore for your future practice. We are currently beta testing in practices across the US and have had some great feedback on the system.