Injured? Make sure you aren't making any of these rehab mistakes⁠

March 25 2022, by khushbu bhati
1 min reading time

Written by Zach Long , Director of Physical Therapy - Carolina Sports Clinic, Lead Faculty - Institute of Clinical Excellence

You probably know him from Instagram thebarbellphysio

This is a series of articles where we invite guests to write about relevant topics in rehabilitation and sports sciences

[1] The biggest mistake made in rehab is not accurately tracking symptoms. What causes pain? How much pain? What length of time, weight on the bar, reps, etc produces those symptoms? Then are you tracking strength and/or range of motion to know if your movement is improving as well? In the video I am using an EasyAngle by Meloq for accurately measuring ROM. If your rehab plan is working, these variables will steadily improve. If they aren't, it may be time for a different approach.

[2] Not that stretching is bad or not at times needed. But more often we need to focus on making STRONGER tissues not LONGER tissues. See my article "Lifter's Guide to Tendinopathy" for more details.

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[3] Low level rehab exercises have a time and place. But they shouldn't be around too long. We need to progress to harder exercises and intensities to drive adaptive changes in the body.

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[4] I'm not saying hammer through something that is painful. But the "just rest" recommendation has to go. Too many positive benefits happen with exercise. Let's find appropriate modifications to keep building overall fitness while respecting healing tissues. Full article on thebarbellphysio.com "How to Continue Training While Injured".

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[5] Use manual therapy and self-soft tissue techniques to drop pain levels down so that we can do the important stuff quicker...that is loading and strengthening tissues.