How To Prevent Injury
Prehab
Prevention is better than the cure! Prehab or prehabilitation, is what we can do to prevent injury. There are so many injuries I see in my day to day practice as a physiotherapist that could have been prevented. Muscle imbalances (muscle tightness and muscle weakness), joint restrictions, fascial tightness and altered joint biomechanics can all contribute to musculoskeletal injury. These can all be corrected with the right type of exercise.
Lets use the lower limb as an example. Weakness in your hip and abdominal muscles will alter the way in which your hip and pelvis function during movement, this will then have a impact on the knee, ankle and foot. Every time I see a knee injury I will also look above the knee at the hip and pelvis and below the knee at the foot and ankle for clues as to why the knee was injured in the first place. I will always find dysfunction somewhere along the lower limb chain (from pelvis/hip to foot). I would never just treat something in isolation, there has to be a reason for pain and injury.
Injury Prevention
The thing I love most about my job is educating people. Teaching people to look after their bodies, strengthen weaknesses to move more freely and live a healthier life is a joy for me. Clinical Pilates allows me to use my knowledge as a physiotherapist to create workouts to do just that. After almost 15 years as a physio and seeing thousands of people, I know what stresses and strains life can place on our bodies. My injury prevention workouts have been designed to combat these stresses. They will move and stretch your joints and muscles, strengthen the muscles I commonly see as problem areas and teach you how to move your body in the way it is designed to move. They are whole body workouts to ensure connection of movement from head to toe. I also suggest my injury prevention workouts should be used as part of training for anyone participating in sport.