Preventative rehabilitation, or “prehab”, is rehabilitation done proactively, before an injury happens. Instead of waiting for pain or a breakdown, prehab focuses on improving the things that commonly lead to injury. This may include:

• Mobility: joint range of motion and tissue flexibility
  
  
• Stability and control: how well you can coordinate movement and maintain alignment
  
  
• Strength and capacity: the ability of muscles, tendons, and joints to tolerate load
  
  
• Movement quality: reducing compensations that overload tissues over time
  
  
• Recovery practices: sleep, stress management, training load, and tissue care

Why is Preventative Rehabilitation so important?

1. Injuries are often predictable, not random. 

Many injuries don’t happen because of bad luck. They happen because demand exceeds capacity. Increasing training load and/or physical working demand whilst your current capacity stays the same is one of the most common reasons for injuries. 

Therefore, prehab helps close that gap by building physical foundational qualities that make injuries less likely to occur when physical demand increases.

2. Prehab helps prevent overuse injury.

A huge percentage of common pain patterns are repetitive-load problems, or “overuse injuries”. Rather than a single traumatic event causing injury, this type of injury or pain occurs because the tissues are constantly stressed over time from repetitive activities. This includes conditions such as Achilles tendinopathy, runner’s knee, rotator cuff irritation, low back flare-ups, tennis elbow, plantar fascia pain.Preventative rehab can help address the underlying drivers for it, which include:

• Strength and/or endurance deficits
  
  
• Poor load tolerance
  
  
• Joint restrictions that force other areas of the body to compensate
  
  
• Insufficient joint or alignment control through specific movements

3. Prehab improves your general performance and supports your lifelong movements

For example:

• Better hip control can mean more efficient running mechanics
• Improved shoulder stability supports stronger lifting and throwing
• Optimal neck and back endurance can improve desk work tolerance
• Older adults maintaining balance and bone density for falls prevention

Who is a good candidate for Prehab?

Preventative rehab can be for anyone! It is especially recommended for those who are:

• Increasing training volume or intensity
  
  
  
• Returning from injury and want to reduce the risk of re-injury
  
  
  
• Sitting a lot and moving too little (e.g. desk work)
  
  
  
• Pregnant and wish to optimise strength and mobility in the pre- and post-partum period
  
  
  
• Doing repetitive work tasks (e.g. packing, cooking, housework)
  
  
  
• Noticing asymmetries (one-sided pain, uneven strength, limited mobility)

Generally, if you have a body and need to use it, you’re a candidate for prehab! If you would like to deep dive further in understanding more about preventative rehabilitation, book an appointment with us at UniquePhysio Bankstown! We are happy to support you and provide a personalised preventative program according to your needs and goals.