Injury Prevention programs

Research has consistently shown that injuries reduce the chance of successful performance by teams and individuals, and interrupt your ability to get better as an athlete. There are numerous papers in different sports and different groups of people from youths to adults, amateur to the elite, male and female athletes with consistent messaging: being injured is not good for you or your team. Being healthy and available to train and play is! The good news is, with a little bit of smart (And sometimes hard) work, your chances of success can significantly improve, if you follow the right plan.

Team Injury Prevention

Injury prevention programs come in a variety of forms, to either improve the whole team’s injury statistics over a period of time, or target a certain person or pathology directly, such as ACL’s or a deficit in proprioception/balance seen in recurrent ankle sprains.  An excellent example is the FIFA 11+ warm up and cool down injury prevention program that has reduced the number of soccer (Football to some) injuries by nearly 40%. That sounds pretty good if you’re a field based athlete and want to stay out on the park all year, or a coach/staff member that wants to help improve your team’s chances of winning, because injuries and even illness reduce the chance of success in sport. The same approach of applying the FIFA 11+ can be used in other field based sports such as AFL (Australian Rules Football), rugby, and even basketball (a court-based activity) where studies have shown significantly lower injuries, fewer injuries at training, less acute injuries, and with less severity.  In a team environment, if you do the right things, we can influence the health and performance of our entire roster. However, it’s only effective to achieve the adaptations if players actually do the work.

Individual Injury Prevention

Previous injury predisposes athletes to further injury.  Most people view physiotherapy as a very hands-on profession, but our role has changed over the years and become a lot more effective and progressive towards exercise and the benefits to all.  We have moved to a profession aimed at preventing injury, particularly in the sporting world, not just reacting to an issue once it’s occurred but doing what we can to stop it happening in the first place.  EXERCISE IS MEDICINE, and good medicine at that. We can implement these strategies 1 on 1 at the individual level, or do exercise as a team, but the benefits only transfer to the people doing the right exercises, at the right time.  An example is Nordics. Nordic Hamstring Exercises done well can reduce injury rates by about half (That’s 50% less hamstring strains!). They can improve flexibility, increase strength, improve speed, allowing you to jump higher and change direction faster.  To summarize; they’re pretty darn good at improving functional performance (getting better as an athlete) safely and at the same time reduce chances of getting hurt. BUT they need to be done with the correct technique and approach (Eccentric focus). The timing is crucial, because if done wrong, they can increase the chance of injury (Certainly NOT a warm up exercise), they need to be done consistently, and they need to be progressively loaded (Made more challenging) over time.  We can show you the simple ways to incorporate the basic injury prevention strategies such as Nordics into your existing program or work with you and your staff to create the right approach from scratch.  

There are many different types of programs out there, and the components can be adapted to your specific requirements for the most effective approach.  Injury prevention programs are the blueprints for performance enhancement. Don’t wait. Book NOW!