Prehab centres on the idea of doing preventative training to reduce one’s risk for being injured, it also can be applied to those doing rehab prior to a surgical procedure to prepare for it and also improve outcomes afterwards.
As consumers are becoming more educated they are realizing that they can work with their Physical Therapist before an injury even occurs to help improve their performance, movement potential and
also reduce their chances of being injured.
Prehab works towards creating a body that is ready to handle the stresses of whatever life may throw your way.
Here, Perfect Stride explains incorporating it into your workout can reduce the likelihood of injury:
▪ Joint building – Some of the main tenants to Prehab include building joint health. Movement at the
fundamental level comes down to your joints ability to move through a full range of motion with
control and strength.
If any of your joints are limited in their capability to move you will affect the overlying structures, such as the tendons, muscles, ligaments, capsule and more. So, it is essential that you get your joints ability to move through a full range of motion established before anything else.
▪ Soft Tissue Work – Prehab prepares the soft tissues to move through their full range of motion (which will be limited if your joint mobility is reduced) with control. Many people will confuse flexibility with mobility.
Flexibility is merely your ability to get into positions, whereas mobility is more about your ability to control yourself through the full range of motion, thus being more active in the movement.
An example of this would be an individual who is able to pull their leg up to their forehead with their
hands, an impressive feat but it is passive as they have no control on this movement.
However, someone with good mobility would be able to lift their own leg up to their head without the hands and then return to the ground all under control.
▪ Stress resistance – Lastly, prehab will also focus on building resilient tissues that can tolerate increased load and stress.
Every tissue in your body has a point/threshold where the amount of the stress/load that is being applied is greater than that particular tissue’s ability to accept that given stress/load, this is where an injury occurs.
So, if we are able to build up the tissues ability to accept load and stress via training, we are essentially pushing back that point of injury!