The Athlete Prehab Screen

Once an injury occurs, a common and immediate thought is: “I’ve got to see a Physio”. That’s is great, but what if we can actually help prior to an injury and potentially stop it from ever occurring…

Prehab is term used to describe a proactive approach which addresses deficits in strength, stability, range of motion, balance, and overall joint function.

At Precision Athletica our Physio’s have developed a movement and mobility screen that has two main purposes:

1. Identify mobility restrictions
2. Identify poor movement patterns

The Athlete Prehab Screen

The first thing our Physio’s do is measure precisely each joint and its active range of motion.

An athlete’s individual mobility scores are ranked against our set desired markers, giving the athlete an indication of how well they are moving.

Another important factor regarding joint mobility is our symmetry between sides. So, within the report athletes are given, alongside individual joint range, is their respective joint symmetry between sides.

Measuring mobility alone only tells us half the picture, to ensure a holistic view of the athlete we also score them on eight selected movement patterns. Each movement has five desired/optimal criteria which an athlete can score a point from.

Fundamental Movement Patterns:

• Spinal flexion
• Spinal extension
• Squat
• SL Squat
• Hinge
• SL Hinge
• Horizontal Push
• Horizontal Pull

Once we identify specific impairments, we can then provide prehab exercises which align with the athlete’s Strength & Conditioning and sporting goals.

Prehab exercises should ideally be performed daily to achieve the best results.

The overall objective when assigning prehab exercises is to reduce the risk of injury by improving the dysfunction and consequently this should transfer to potentially improving their athletic performance.

In addition, if an injury was to happen, we have baseline measures for pre-injury status and return to sporting guidelines.

Who Can Get the Screen

EVERYONE! Whether you are an aspiring athlete or just your everyday gym goer it is important to do the screen.

Within the first week of joining Precision Athletica, the movement and mobility screen is scheduled, and then each quarterly repeated in order to monitor progress.

How Long Does It Take

About 45mins.

Plus you get to a printed report explaining your movement and mobility findings.

Want To Know More

If you would like to know more about the athlete prehab screen and how it might benefit you, we’d recommend booking a session with one of our Physio’s based in Olympic Park, such as Lale Kassem who wrote this article.

How Do I Book An Appointment with Precision Athletica for Help?

We’re taking the health of our clients, members and staff very seriously and our preference would be for you to call to book an appointment so that we can make sure to explain our approach to keeping you safe. You can call our bookings team to schedule a session:

• Customer Support Centre: 02 9764 5787
• OR email us at: olympicpark@precisionathletica.com.au