A method of minimizing symptoms of injury, illness or disease during strengthening of a patient's pathological muscle by a sequence of prescribed activity adaptation steps. The method begins at the start of the strengthening exercise in response to exacerbation of symptoms exhibited by patient. The symptoms exhibited by the patient are minimized by adjusting an intensity of the strengthening exercise, limiting a range of motion of the strengthening exercise, dividing evenly a prescribed number of sets and repetitions corresponding to the strengthening exercise, dividing unevenly the prescribed number of sets and repetitions corresponding to the strengthening exercise, varying a speed at which the patient is subjected to the strengthening exercise, modifying a position of the patient for the strengthening exercise, matching a mode of the strengthening exercise to the modified patient's position, and switching between primary, secondary and tertiary actions of the patient's target muscle.
