The key to injury prevention is understanding that pain is usually a result of a faulty movement strategy resulting in undo stress to the body’s tissues. The body must have adequate mobility and strength in all surrounding joints in order to execute the task at hand. Furthermore, the body must also utilize the right muscles at the right time to perform the movement efficiently and safely.
The logical question that follows is “how do we do that?” I wish that I had a simple quick fix for you, but the truth is that it isn’t that simple. I could give you a list of exercises to do with the goal of targeting the correct muscles, but there is no guarantee that you would use the right muscles to do them. Our bodies are very goal oriented in that if you give the body a task, it will use whatever resources it has to complete it - even if that means perpetuating movement patterns that are causing pain or injury. The other important factor to consider is that everyone’s body is different and therefore there is no cookie-cutter approach to fixing “low back”, “neck pain”, “knee pain”, etc. Re-wiring the nervous system to recruit the right muscles at the right time requires individualized care and guidance by a license physical therapist - and that is what I can offer you at The Academy.