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  • Q&A with Australian Health Practitioners

    What is a prehab program?

    Related Topics
    Fitness and Sports Medicine Sports Injuries & Prevention
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  • Timothy Douge

    Exercise Physiologist, Pilates Instructor

    I am a Level 1 Pilates Instructor and an Accredited Exercise Physiologist specialising in chronic disease and lifestyle management. I have experience in managing Diabetes, … View Profile

    Prehab is a term used to describe the work done to either prevent an injury from occuring or minimise the recovery time after an injury or surgery.
    For example if a person needs a knee reconstruction it is common that post surgery there will be a significant amount of muscle loss due to the knee being immobile. The Prehab for this is to do a high volume of leg strengthening exercises, particularly for the quadriceps, before the surgery so that the muscle is developed as much as possible. The muscle will still undergo some wastage post surgery but because of its over development and strengthening during Prehab the relative muscle loss is much less.

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  • Skye Fitzpatrick

    Physiotherapist

    Experienced Physiotherapist with special interest in Orthopaedic Rehabilitation following joint replacement surgery (at home following discharge). Treatments are focused on increasing strength, mobility and function. … View Profile

    Those who spend time before Total Joint Replacement surgery are likely to have a much better outcome. It only requires a few minutes each day in the weeks leading up to your operation to build muscle in those areas most needed afterwards. Especially with Total Knee Replacement it is just as Timothy has described. Having that extra strength will make those first few days much easier - especially if you have bilateral replacement (both joints replaced at once). It's good to practice the specific post operative exercises BEFORE you have to deal with the discomfort of stitches. Some specialists recommend a Prehab programme to their patients. Why not ask you surgeon if he/she thinks it is a good idea for you?

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  • Miss Loretta O'Sullivan-Pippia

    Physiotherapist

    I am a specialist sports physiotherapist with a sub-speciality in adolescents in sport (as awarded bu the Australian College of Physiotherapists in 2007). In addition … View Profile

    Pre-hab, as both Timothy and Suzen have highlight, is a program you do before surgery, to ready yourself for surgery to help improve your rehabilitation after surgery.

    Pre-hab may focus on muscle strength, neuromuscular control (how you move), balance, range of movement, general fitness, education++ and so forth.  

    Pre-hab makes a huge difference to your post surgery rehabilition physically, but perhaps even more importantly, is the mental/emotional advantage pre-hap gives you.  

    The mental/emotional aspect of pre-hap is really important for children and teenagers who have sustained significant injury and who require surgery for this injury.  This is because children and teenagers do not have the experience of injury, surgery or recovery from injury/surgery that adults do.  Children have the support of their parents so this helps, but teenagers are becoming more independant from their parents and even though their parents will be their for support, the teenagers will often want to take control of things themselves.  Also the effect of time out from sport/school is more pronouced because it is a bigger percentage of their life lived (1 yr out of a 12 yr old life is the equivalent to 3 yrs of a 36 yr olds life) and because sport and academic are percieved to be more signicant in the adolescent (if your are yr 12, you can't play for your school next year and your academic results determine what you do at uni etc).

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