Tripping, slipping, stumbling, falling; they’re not probabilities, they’re certainties. You will trip, slip, stumble, and fall, the question is when – today, tomorrow, next year, next decade, it will happen. So we prepare our bodies to deal with this sudden and unexpected stress with prehab, hopefully minimizing the need for rehab in the process.

We also prepare our bodies to deal with the physical exercise that we do. Without prehab our bodies are in general simply not ready for any activity. Why? Because it’s used to us sitting still, never bending our legs more than 90°, never raising our arms above shoulder height, never turning the torso and neck more than 45° from the centre line, often hunched over in front of a computer for hours every day. More or less any activity at all outside of this comfort zone will result in injuries (even fast walking or running), forcing us into rehab.

About two thirds of all types of injuries come from overuse due to some imbalance in your body, about one third are caused by trauma. Once we have them they tend to stick, for months, years, maybe decades. The good news is your body is capable of recovery if your mind is ready. Maybe 90 percent recovery, maybe 100 percent recovery – it depends on your strategy for rehab.

At Playing for Life we use a structured approach of (mainly) body weight exercises for improving range of motion and strengthening of joints and muscles for both prehab and rehab purposes.