Why is Prehab important? – Time and Money!

By Physiotherapist, Vanessa Boon

Time – the less time you spend being injured; the more time you have to do the things you love. Prehab can prepare you for the physical demands of daily life, various sports and your hobbies!

Money – we all know the saying ‘prevention is better than cure’ but prevention is also cheaper than cure. A few preventative screens or sessions are far less costly than needing an MRI/CT scan and potential surgery.

 

How does Prehab decrease my chances of injury?

• • Focusing on the deep stabilising muscles (e.g. rotator cuff muscles that stabilise your shoulder) lessens your chance of getting “a niggle” after sports.
  • Performing balance training has been shown to decrease ligament injuries. Prevention protocols show the reduction of ankles sprains or ACL injuries by up to 60%.
  • Strengthening the smaller muscles (e.g. gluteus medius), not just the big ones, will prevent muscle, tendon and ligament injuries. A ligament injury can take a long time to heal, so spending time performing prehab exercises can decrease your time to bounce back.
  • Using active stretching as a form of prehab will decrease your chance of injury. For example, poor lower limb flexibility increases lower limb overuse injuries by over 50% as compared to those with average flexibility.

 

Want to stay injury free?

The secret is prehab > rehab.  Whether you play a sport or not, it is beneficial to add general or specific prehab exercises to your daily/training routine. If you would like to learn more about what prehab exercises are right for you, give us a call at 8599 9811 and one of our team will call you back!