These 3 Steps Will Change How You View Rehab Forever

I’ve been in this profession for 7 years and the amount of information that comes at us on a daily basis about how to manage injuries is overwhelming. Even for me, someone who spends most of his time reading, listening, and consuming information to best serve the hundreds of clients I see each year. 

That’s why I’m here to simplify and provide you with a framework that’ll change how you view your injuries forever. Remember, simple doesn’t mean easy. But let’s dive In.

The Three Steps

I’ll cut to the chase quick to save time. The threes steps that’ll change how you view rehab are:

1. Calm it down 

2. Build it up

3. Bridge the gap 

Now, if you want stop here because you have the 3 steps totally cool. If you want to dive a bit deeper on this. Continue on :)

Calm it down

This is the phase where you’re most likely experiencing pain that’s keeping you from doing a particular activity or movement. Every time you bend over to put on your sock or try to go back to lifting weights your back hurts. In order to prevent this from getting worse, we need to calm down the tissue. 

We can do this by:

• Rest

• Movement 

• Exercise 

• Soft tissue release 

• Acupuncture 

• K-tape

• Electrical stim

• Petting the dog

This list can go on and on. Most of the list above does the same thing, It can contribute to calming down the tissue. NOW, our bias and what we believe is the most productive way of doing this is through movement, exercise and education around what is going on with your pain. The reason being is all of these things put the control in your hands. You don’t need to rely on another person or machine. You can do it on your own.

In this phase we focus on:

1. Reducing pain 

2. Finding an entry point to load

3. Modifying/removing anything contributing to driving more pain

Once things are calmed down we move into the next phase.

Build It Up

This is where things become a bit more fun. As pain levels calm down and you start to feel better, we need to make sure that we help adapt and build up your tissues tolerance to load so that you’re moving towards being able to meet the demands of your activity. At this point in the rehab you’re feeling much better and are ready to add more back into your routine. Hence the fun. 

In this phase we focus on:

1. Continued modification (If needed)

2. Progressive loading

3. Reintroduction of preferred activity or sport

This phase is crucial for avoiding one of the nasty cycles of rehab. Which is as follows:

Pain occurs —> rest —> pain feels better —> return to activity —> pain returns —> rest —> pain feels better

You rest to reduce pain and calm things down and then instead of building things up, you go right back to your activity. Your tissue isn’t ready to handle this and you flare up again forcing you to stop and rest again.  We’ve seen people go through this cycle over and over again. We don’t want that for you! So build things up.

Once we build that tolerance up we head right on to phase 3

Bridge The Gap

This phase gets skipped the most, you can read about it more here… . So if you’re feeling your attention drift off to switching to tik tok, hold on! It’ll be worth it. In this phase we bridge the gap between your rehab and performance. Performance is relative to you and can range from running a marathon to wanting to get up and down from the floor with you grandchild. Regardless of what that is. We need to bridge it.

Often time at this phase people are feeling really good. They have little to no pain, are feeling strong, and are ready to jump back into things full go. Unfortunately, just because you don’t have pain doesn’t mean you’re ready to return. People will jump back into their activity or sport too aggressively and end up flaring themselves back up. This is often the time when I hear people say, “well maybe I’m just not cut out for this anymore’ or my favourite, “I guess I’m just too old”. This is not a good cycle to be in. 

In this phase we focus on:

1. Continued progressive loading (often much more intense)

2. Sport/activity specific exercises (jumping, running, cutting)

3. A plan for gradual return to sport.

If this phase is respected and done correctly it sets you up for a much more successful transition back to your activity. We want to expose your tissues to all the demands of your activity so that we can be confident they’re ready to take on those loads. We also want you to be confident that when you go back you are prepared and aren’t afraid of injuring yourself again.

Closing thoughts

I know that these 3 steps aren’t the most flashy. They probably won’t look great for a viral clip on the internet but they’ll give you a solid framework to approach your rehab journey. We teach this framework to every one of our clients who come into The Movement because we believe that this framework in can be applied to most, if not all injuries they’ll experience in their life. The better you understand your body the more in control you are of your health.

If you think these 3 steps will have an impact on how you few injury moving forward. Share it with a friend. Spread the love.

If you’re looking for more guidance with rehab or performance reach out! We would love to help.

P.S. If you quick scrolled to the bottom and are reading this. All good I get it. Check this out for a quicker hit on the topic