You've been training for years, but you're starting to get little niggles that just won't go away. It’s impacting your training, and you’re having to take days off or finish sets early. Or maybe you play sports and are fed up with frequent injuries such as ankle sprains.
If any of these sound familiar, you’ll know that we take being able to move pain-free for granted. Unfortunately, it’s not only when we reach this stage that we realize this, at which point we find ourselves quickly Googling the best home remedies or stretches we can do – anything to get us back in the gym faster.
But imagine if there was a way you could lessen your chance of injury in the first place. Well, it’s time to introduce you to prehab: a proactive training method aimed at reducing the chance of injury before it occurs.
Granted, it won’t eliminate the chance of injury entirely, but including the right prehab exercises in your routine will help strengthen and mobilize the joints and improve balance, hopefully preventing injury in the future.
‘But I’ve never been injured, so why do I need to do prehab?’: Injury can happen to any of us at any time, and trust us when we say it isn’t fun. Whilst prehab doesn’t eliminate the chance of injury entirely, including the right prehab exercises in your routine will help strengthen and mobilize the joints and improve balance, lessening the chance of injury in the future.
We’re going to show you the exact prehab exercises you need to be doing. They won't take a ton of time, but they’ll be worth it in the long run.
What You'll Find In This Article:
What Is Prehab?
The 5 Best Prehab Exercises
FAQs
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What Is Prehab?
You’ve probably heard of rehab: a method used to return athletes to full function after injury. Prehab is the total opposite, aiming to prevent injuries before they occur.
Sometimes, prehabilitation refers to exercises that are prescribed before surgery to give the individual the best chance of a successful outcome. But prehab can also be used for people who undertake regular sports and activities and who are at risk of injury. This type of prehab (and the one which we are focusing on in this article) is described as training with injury reduction in mind to minimize our risk of getting injured in the first place. It focuses on strengthening common injury sites in the body, such as the rotator cuff or ACL.
Prehab is not about lifting heavy weights or high-volume. Instead, the aim of prehab exercises is to develop stability through the major joints in the body, develop the core, and improve strength through a full range of movement.
The 5 Best Prehab Exercises
The best prehab exercises are likely to vary depending on the individual (i.e., their current movement, areas of weakness, and type of sport they practice), but ideally, you want to include prehab exercises that target both large muscle groups as well as the smaller, stabilizing muscles.
The most common injuries include rotator cuff injuries, runner’s knee, hamstring strain, and back strain – so our best prehab exercises aim to build strength and stability to prevent these injuries.
1. Single-Leg Squat
Many of us get strong on two legs, but what about one leg at a time? While bilateral exercises usually take priority on our leg day programming, neglecting single-leg work can cause strength imbalances to creep in. Let those imbalances progress, and aches, pains, and movement dysfunctions can occur over time. The solution? Single-leg work.
If that’s not enough, if you’re running, jumping, or playing a team sport, building unilateral leg strength will improve your ability to propel yourself forward powerfully, change direction quickly, and withstand impact. With knee injuries (such as runner’s knee) accounting for 41% of all sports injuries, a single-leg squat is a great prehab exercise to build strength around the knee using the quadriceps to lessen the chance of injury [1].
‘Great, so there are many benefits to single-leg work. But won’t Split Squats do the job?’
While Split Squats develop unilateral leg strength, the back leg still assists with some of the resistance, whilst the front leg takes most of the load, meaning it isn’t truly a unilateral exercise. The Single-Leg Squat, on the other hand, is, and works to develop unilateral leg strength at the hip and knee, using the quads and glutes, making it an essential prehab leg exercise.
How To Do The Single-Leg Squat:
Stand in front of a bench or box. Lift one leg out, holding it straight in front of you. Clasp your hands in front of your chest or hold them straight out in front of you to help you balance.
Bracing your core and keeping your chest up, push your hips back, lowering into a squat position until you reach the bench and sit on it fully.
Pause, then drive up, pressing through your heel, extending your hips, and squeezing your glutes, keeping your front foot elevated the whole time.
Stand fully upright before repeating for 5-10 reps, then swap sides.
To make the Single-Leg Squat more difficult, increase the resistance by holding a dumbbell as you perform the exercise.
2. Harop Curl
With hamstring injuries being one of the most common injuries in athletes, you ideally should be doing prehab leg exercises that strengthen your hamstrings [2]. Not only that, but stronger hamstrings have been found to decrease the chance of ACL injury, with one study finding female athletes who suffered from ACL injury had decreased hamstring strength compared to those who did not go on to injure their ACL, making them an essential component to any rehabilitation program [3].
For hamstring training, exercises such as the Romanian Deadlift may spring to mind. This is a great hamstring exercise, but it is mainly hip-dominant, meaning it works the hamstrings proximally (higher up near the hip). What we often neglect is working the hamstrings distally (lower down near the knee). Working the hamstrings from this angle during the Harop Curl allows for better engagement in the hamstrings behind the knee, protecting against injuries such as ACL tears.
You may recognize that it looks similar to a Nordic curl. The Harop Curl is actually a regression of the Nordic Curl. It’s much more accessible, and there’s no chance of falling on your face with this one! But you’ll still get that great hamstring pump afterward.
How To Do The Harop Curl:
In a kneeling position, wedge your heels under something secure e.g. a floor GHD machine, a low set safety bar on a squat rack, or failing that, get a friend to hold your feet. Ideally, try not to touch your toes on the floor
Kneeling upright, cross your arms over your chest. Then, Lower your forehead towards your knees by hinging at the hips and flexing your spine.
Pull back up to the starting position by pulling your heels up into the pad. squeeze your glutes at the top.
Repeat for 10-12 reps.
3. Arnold Press
So we’ve touched on some prehab leg exercises, but what about upper body prehab exercises? Well, in our top half, the shoulder is the most commonly injured area. It makes sense, as it’s a ball-and-socket joint that has 7 primary functions and supports further function of the scapula (shoulder blades). This is why shoulder prehab exercises are so popular in warm-ups. However, shoulder prehab exercises can be used beyond a warm-up.
Our favorite shoulder prehab exercise is the Arnold Press, which is very similar to the shoulder press but with an added rotation. This allows for more activation of the delts while building shoulder stability in the rotator cuff to help prevent injuries. This is particularly important if you do an activity with lots of overhead movements, such as swimming or weightlifting.
How To Do The Arnold Press:
Set up the bench to around 70 degrees upright, and choose a pair of dumbbells (around 20% lower than what you would normally select for a shoulder press).
Hold the dumbbells in both hands just above your pectoral muscles, with your hands facing your chest. Tuck your elbows in and make sure they’re pointing down. You should look like you’ve reached the end-point of a bicep curl, minus the flex.
Keeping your chin tucked, spine neutral, and feet firmly planted onto the floor, gently press the dumbbells up whilst rotating your arms out so that your palms are facing away from you.
Push the dumbbells up above your shoulders until your arms are fully extended.
Pause, then slowly lower the dumbbells back down, rotating your arms inwards, tucking your elbows in, and twisting your wrists so that your palms are once again facing your body.
Pause, then repeat for 12-15 reps.
4. Face Pull
You’ll see a second shoulder exercise in this list because one exercise recommendation isn’t enough to keep the shoulders healthy and happy.
We recommend not just one shoulder prehab exercise to keep the shoulders healthy but two, the second of which is a Face Pull.
Many of us love chest day, but with lots of heavy pressing comes a focus on the anterior delt, leaving other areas neglected. Face Pulls work those weak and often neglected muscles of the posterior shoulder and upper back, including the external rotators, posterior deltoids, rhomboids, and middle trapezius. They also work to improve shoulder stability by strengthening the scapula and shoulder stabilizers. This helps to restore muscular balance across the shoulder girdle, ensuring the shoulders are kept healthy and strong, therefore helping to prevent injury.
You can do Face Pulls standing, seated, or kneeling. A half-kneeling position provides more balance, making it easier for most.
How To Do A Face Pull From Half-Kneeling Position:
Attach the rope extension to the cable machine and move the cable to roughly chin height on the tower.
Take the two ends of the cable in both hands in an overhand grip, thumbs facing down.
Take a couple of steps back and come into a half-kneeling position with arms fully extended in front of you. Lean back slightly and engage your core.
Pull the rope towards your forehead, aiming to get the handles towards your ears, letting the elbows flair out to the side, level with your wrist and hands.
Pause, squeeze your rear delts, then reverse the movement, slowly extending the arms back to the starting position.
5. Aleknas
Finally, we finish off our best rehabilitation exercises with a core exercise, Aleknas. Sure, many of us probably train core because we dream of having a six-pack, but a strong core it’s actually crucial for injury prevention. The core is our body’s main stabilizing muscle, which, when strong, serves to support and protect the lumber spine. A weak core, on the other hand, can lead to poor posture, lower back pain, and injury, so keeping the core strong is a very important part of prehab.
When we turn to core training, we usually opt for a crunch or anti-extension movement (i.e., plank or ab rollouts where your body is in a lengthened position, and you’re aiming to ‘fight the fall’). When doing Aleknas, however, you get a bit of both, which is quite rare! The extended ‘hollow’ position works the lower abs in an anti-extension movement, whilst bringing your arms and legs in (in a crunch-like motion) works the upper abs. You’ll also develop a strong ‘hollow’ position, strengthening the whole core, and work your hip flexors too.
How to do Aleknas:
Lie on the floor with your arms extended straight up to the ceiling, knees bent at 90 degrees.
Take a deep breath in, and then exhale while slowly extending your arms and legs away from you. Only extend as far as you can without your lower back leaving the ground.
Inhale, bringing your arms and legs back into the starting position.
Repeat the movement for 10-15 reps.
To make this exercise harder, add two plates. Balance one on the front of your shins and hold the other in your hands.
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Prehab Is Important, So Start Making Time For It
Prehab doesn’t have to take a massive amount of time, but it will greatly improve your movement—both during activity and in daily life. Be consistent and do it regularly: Your future self will thank you.
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References:
Sancheti, P., Razi, M., Ramanathan, E.B.S. and Yung, P. (2010). Injuries around the knee – Symposium. British Journal of Sports Medicine, [online] 44(Suppl 1), pp.i1–i1. doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsm.2010.078725.1.
Chu, S.K. and Rho, M.E. (2016). Hamstring injuries in the athlete. Current Sports Medicine Reports, [online] 15(3), pp.184–190. doi:https://doi.org/10.1249/jsr.0000000000000264.
Myer, G.D., Ford, K.R., Barber Foss, K.D., Liu, C., Nick, T.G. and Hewett, T.E. (2009). The Relationship of Hamstrings and Quadriceps Strength to Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury in Female Athletes. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 19(1), pp.3–8. doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/jsm.0b013e318190bddb.
