‘Prehabilitation’

Aug 2008

I was looking at an endurance magazine recently and came across the term ‘Prehabilitation’. This was a new one on me but it could be more than just an advertising ‘spin doctor’ word, it could refer to a useful postural concept!

Everyone knows the ‘injury – rehab.’ process but ‘prehab’, sounds like you’d take action before it had all turned to custard – and I’m in favour of that.

If we could occasionally look into a crystal ball and see what was going to happen to our bodies down the track I think we might make better choices about how we use ourselves today. If you could suddenly see that you were going to have a back problem at 30, or a heart attack at forty, or chronic pain in your hip or neck, would you try to stop it?

If you could see why running made your ankle sore or standing gave you back ache, would you change it?

If you knew what the pain you were feeling was caused by, and you knew how to fix it – would you?

Crystal balls are a bit dodgy but there are some really good indicators of the future right in front of us.

Parents and Grandparents

For those of us lucky enough to know our parents and grandparents we can often see which one we take after. In many cases how they’ve ended up is we’re headed.

Family pictures

If you notice something about your body now, then you can look at the family photo’s to see if it was evident back then. You can also look to see if other members of the family do the same thing.

Old shoes

These can tell you a lot about what your feet have been doing for the last year or so. The way they wear tells you about how you stand and walk.

Mirrors

Mostly we look into mirrors to see if our faces are ok and our hair is alright, but we don’t see how our bodies look. Right there in front of us is a picture of what’s happening right now. If you let everything sag a bit more then that’s where it’s heading. Remember, gravity sucks – all the time!

Pain Those glimpses of pain we feel and any injuries we have are likely to have some postural root cause in the way we use them. The ankle you sprained a while ago is likely to be the one you sprain again. The sore neck and shoulder you feel sometimes will probably return next time you’re tired and stressed.

Reading the signs is the first step – being aware of yourself and noticing what’s happening.

The second step is working out what the signs mean and how to make the right changes.

Often we ask other people like doctors or physio’s to tell us what’s wrong and what we should do, but if we learnt the language of our bodies and how to pay attention to what they’re telling us, then we could manage and prevent many problems ourselves.

This is a primary goal of Postural Patterning. To help you to understand how your body is working and how to improve your everyday living within it. That’s the trouble with our bodies, they’re hard things to learn how to drive!