Pre-habilitation, What’s that?

Pre-habilitation – A lateral thinking towards prevention of injuries

Rehabilitation of athletic injuries such as ligament and muscle injuries is common at present which takes longer period of time to get recovered and require great deal of patience throughout, ultimately leading to longer period out of play. On the other hand it is already known that tissue damage had been done.

Why not prevent injuries before it happen? There is a need of awareness and education among sporty and general exerciser individuals about pre-habilitation and its importance.

So what it actually is?

Pre-habilitation is a exercise program set for an individual knowing his/her weak links in body which can cause injury in near future. Pre-habilitation works on decreasing risk of injury, focuses on strength, flexibility & neuromuscular control of the areas vulnerable to injuries. This will also minimize the resting time or out of completion period due to injury and its recovery.

Pre-habilitation is sports specific and individual body based approach means it’s not common for all. Strengthening, flexibility, proprioception and agility exercises can reduce risk of injuries and also can help to enhance performance.

As according to American journal of Sports medicine , agility drills reduced ACL injuries among female soccer players by 88%.

Science behind Pre-habilitation –

Continuous training while having bio-mechanical fault can lead to injury, it becomes necessity to have a bio-mechanical approach towards athlete assessment. Pre-habilitation focuses on the regimes which will counter these faults. Biomechanical assessment follows functional activities to reach to weaker links in the body and the structures to be worked on. As for example pronation distortion syndrome can cause stress on ACL or PFPs over a period of time. Pre-habilitation works upon correcting the faulty mechanics thus reducing injury risks.

Beneficiaries of Pre-habilitation –

Elite athletes, occasional exercisers, gym going individuals & also those who are not regular exercisers are vulnerable to get injury , can benefit by pre-habilitation. Individuals having past injury can also have pre-habilitation program for themselves in order to prevent recurrence of same injury or other associated with it.

Why to get treated or rehabilitated after injury or any musculoskeletal pain when we can prevent it as it is rightly said “prevention is better than cure”.

Right choice of professional for pre-habilitation –

Physiotherapist is best choice when it comes to rehabilitation after injury similarly in prehabilitation physiotherapist is right selection. Biomechanical analysis is key for pre-habilitation for exercise planning and for that who can be better than physiotherapist.