Injury Prehab

Injury Prehab

Most training injuries announce themselves weeks in advance - a cranky shoulder, a knee that aches on stairs - and the cheap fix is targeted resilience work done before failure, not rehab after it. This skill programs that work for the four zones where lifters and runners actually break: shoulders, knees, lower back, and hips. It prevents; it does not treat. Anything that already hurts belongs with a physiotherapist.

Operating procedure

Step 1: Gather inputs

Collect: the current training program (lifting split, running volume, sport) so prehab can attach to it; training days per week; the zones that feel tight, weak, or historically troublesome; any current pain or past injury (past injury means bias volume to that zone; current pain means stop - see Escalation); available equipment (bands cover 90% of prehab); and minutes willing to spend (default 10-15 before sessions). If the user cannot name a weak zone, treat all four as guesses and start with the balanced circuit.

Step 2: Screen before programming

Sharp pain, radiating pain, numbness or tingling, joint swelling or locking, or night pain disqualify a zone from prehab programming - those are physio referrals, not exercise-selection problems. Prehab loads are light, but loading an undiagnosed injury still makes it worse.

Step 3: Select the zone menus

• Shoulders (the rotator cuff is the most common failure point): band or cable external rotation 3×15 at light load, face pulls 3×15-20, YTW raises 2×10-12, plus serratus anterior work (wall slides, scapular push-up plus) to protect mechanics under load. Run 2-3 days per week, ideally before pressing sessions. Structural rule: keep pulling volume equal to or greater than pressing volume across the week - chronic pressing dominance is how impingement develops.
• Knees (most knee trouble originates in weak glutes and hips, not the knee): glute bridges or hip thrusts 3×15-20, lateral band walks 2×15 per side, terminal knee extensions with a band 3×15 per side; Spanish squats or sissy squats at slow tempo for the VMO; single-leg work (split squats, step-ups) to expose and correct side-to-side asymmetry - a rep or load gap above ~10% between sides is a flag to train the weak side first.
• Lower back (needs stability, not mobility - core endurance is the target): the McGill Big Three - curl-up (lumbar stays neutral; this is not a crunch), side plank, bird dog - 3 sets of 8-10 reps with 10-second holds, progressing to timed sets. Pair with hip flexor mobility (couch stretch, 90/90) because tight hip flexors load the lumbar spine directly. Rule: no heavy spinal flexion under fatigue.
• Hips (need both strength and range): Copenhagen plank for adductors, banded clamshells, single-leg RDL; mobility via 90/90 (internal and external rotation), deep squat holds with thoracic rotation, and hip flexor stretch with a posterior pelvic tilt. Five minutes daily on hips has outsized returns for lower-body longevity.