Prehab - A Flawed Concept

Prehab is another guru term that has taken on a life of its own. The term was originated by Pitching guru, Tom House. I think he coined the term because so many of his pitchers were getting hurt using his program that he had to prepare them for post op rehab, hence the term prehab. There is no place for the term. Every sound training program should have an injury prevention component build into it. It should be relatively transparent. If there are particular issues in a particular sport or with a particular athlete then there should be a remedial component designed to address that. This may seem like splitting hairs, but words create images and images create action. Remediation and injury prevention are part of a good program. I work hard to make those components transparent without deemphasizing their importance to the athletes. The interesting thing for me is to watch these people that are putting such emphasis on prehab. They seem to have the most injuries! Could it be that that the prehab is setting them for injuries? Remedial work in inherent in good training progressions which go a long way toward preventing injuries, so carefully design your progressions to incorporate a remedial component. Also do not be in a hurry, progression takes time. The message is remediate daily, even with elite athletes. Hide it in the warm-up and with in other training tasks so they relate it to the movements of their sport.