The Prehab Guys

10/17/2025

Happy Friday!

Everyone at Prehab HQ took on this challenge: try to sit on the ball. Surprisingly a lot harder than it looks, especially when Mike is rolling the ball.

Might be a good one to test with your team, friends, family. Try it, let us know how it goes!

10/17/2025

A 2013 study of 400+ professional soccer players showed something important—knowing the type and severity of a muscle strain can help to accurately predict return-to-play timelines. 🏃‍♂️⚽

Why does that matter for you?
Whether it’s a quad pull or a hamstring strain, the severity of the tissue involved directly affects how your tissue heals, how quickly you can rebuild strength, and how soon you’re back performing at your best. More research needs to be done on the subject and the continuum of grading muscle strains continues to evolve, but better understanding the role that the severity of the strain has in return to sport or activity gets us closer to providing the highest level of care.

That’s why our programs in The Prehab App are built around evidence-based progressions that match your strain severity and progress you appropriately for appropriate tissue adaption
✅ No more generic rehab plans.
✅ No more wondering if you’re ready.
✅ Just a clear, expert-led path back to sport and peak performance.

💪 Built by Doctors of Physical Therapy. Backed by research. Designed for athletes who want to recover smarter—and stronger.

Reference: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4914372/

10/15/2025

When people think you don't need mobility work...

Your hips are the powerhouse of every move!
Ball-and-socket design = mobility + stability, letting you squat, walk, lift, dance, and more.

However, in addition to its exceptional mobility, the hips are responsible for giving us a base of weight bearing capabilities to perform complex movements such as walking, swinging a golf club, squatting to pick up objects, dancing, etc., as it also serves as a key stabilizer. If the hips become stiff our movement options become limited!

As technological advances have made our living and work environments easier, the sacrifice of exploring our full hip mobility in all planes of motion has been made. If we are only taking our hips through flexion/extension (sitting/standing) day after day we are missing out on significant movement potential and actually increase our risk for injury! Hip mobility limitations have been correlated with a variety of musculoskeletal conditions, including low back pain, femoral acetabular impingement (FAI), hip osteoarthritis, and labral pathologies.

💯To really optimize hip mobility, we need a multi-centered approach. There is a ton going on at the hip from an anatomical, physiological, and biomechanics perspective. The hip joint itself, all of the muscular and soft tissue attachments, its proximity to the pelvis, there is a lot to consider when working on mobility. To give you some perspective, there are 27 muscles that cross the hip joint and there are many other muscle groups above and below the hip joint that affect overall hip function.

We have to attack the hip from all angles, not only figuratively, but literally as well!

10/14/2025

Have these exercises made it into your rotator cuff routine? 👀

When most people think about strengthening the rotator cuff, they picture internal and external rotations with the arm at the side. While those have their place, the rotator cuff does so much more for shoulder health and mechanics.

These muscles help with shoulder abduction, flexion, and rotation in multiple planes of motion — all while keeping the humeral head stable and supported. The exercises above target those movements while challenging the cuff to stabilize under different demands.

Surprised to see the plank variations in there? 🤔 Don’t be. A 2024 study found that small changes in elbow position or body weight (like elevated vs. low planks) can significantly impact activation of both the scapular and rotator cuff muscles. Stability work isn’t just for your core — your shoulders benefit too.

What are some of your go-to rotator cuff exercises? Drop them below 👇
And if you’re building out your shoulder routine, check out our Rotator Cuff Prehab Program for the exercises we can’t live without.

📖 Reference:
Can, E.N., Harput, G., & Turgut, E. (2024). Shoulder and Scapular Muscle Activity During Low and High Plank Variations With Different Body-Weight-Bearing Statuses. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 38(2): 245-252. DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000004622

10/10/2025

Who said PTs can’t jump?

We tested verticals across the office—results were surprisingly athletic.
Also: one hamstring scare, zero regrets.

👉 Drop a comment: who do you think had the highest vert?

10/08/2025

The exercises you’re not doing for your biceps tendinopathy but should be.

Biceps tendon pain is frustrating, and for good reason! Biceps tendinopathy doesn’t always happen in isolation, and research has shown that often we see involvement of the rotator cuff, labrum, or other structures of the shoulder, resulting in anterior shoulder pain and difficulty with everyday tasks.

If biceps tendon pain doesn’t happen in isolation, our rehab for biceps tendinopathy should not just treat the biceps tendon, it should also treat the other muscles and tissues of the shoulder as well. Rehab should be dynamic - targeting the periscapular muscles, the serratus anterior to assist with overhead flexion, and focus on rotator cuff strength and stability with overhead work.

If your rehab from biceps tendinopathy doesn’t look like this, it’s time that it should. Get started on our free 20 min Biceps Tendinopathy Strength workout on the Prehab app.

Reference: https://www.jospt.org/doi/full/10.2519/jospt.2009.2802

10/07/2025

https://prehabapp.onelink.me/mYpq/6du4b7mtShin splints aren’t just from “tight calves” or doing too much too soon 👣

Also known as Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome, shin splints are now understood as a bony overload issue—often triggered by increasing mileage or training intensity too quickly. But it’s not just about training volume.

Factors like poor sleep, under-fueling, stress, and hormonal changes (including your menstrual cycle) all play a role in recovery and injury risk.

That’s why fixing shin splints takes more than foam rolling or icing:
✅ Build capacity with plyometrics
✅ Strengthen your foot & ankle complex
✅ Load your tibialis anterior

You can’t just avoid impact as a runner—you have to train for it.
🏃‍♀️ Our Running Prehab Program helps you do exactly that—no fluff, just what works.

Click the link to start.
https://prehabapp.onelink.me/mYpq/2ev0bllo

10/03/2025

The surprising reasons why people aren’t partaking in physical activity with low back pain. 👀

A synthesis performed on the literature surrounding low back pain revealed some surprising reasons as to why people aren’t partaking in physical activity, such as a deadlift, as rehab for low back pain.

Several studies were analysed and found that the main reasons why people weren’t partaking in physical activity were not just because of pain, ideas surrounding fear of movement, intervention type, lack of information, motivation and support all played a major role in someone not partaking in physical activity for low back pain.

Sit with that for a minute. Our low back pain is so much more than the pain level we are feeling. Finding a support team that provides you with the right information at the right time, educates you on why exercises such as a deadlift can and should play a crucial role in your rehab for low back pain, and helps to support you and motivate you along the way is wildly important to your success with returning to physical activity when dealing with chronic low back pain.

Get educated, get support, and get moving!

Reference: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2025.12905

10/02/2025

It’s officially PT Month!

We're taking the time to appreciate all of our PTs, ATs, Personal Trainers!

Get 25% off your first year of the Exercise Library. The best HEP platform out there. Made by clinicians, for clinician.

Click the link to upgrade your HEP

Get acces to the most comprehensive exercise library in the world. Use the prehab exercise library to create custom exercise programs

10/02/2025

If you’re dealing with pain at the tendon just below the kneecap, these are 5 must-do exercises

Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome has an incidence rate of 25-43% in recreational athletes and those who partake in basic military training. It’s generally characterized by pain just below the patella and around the kneecap. A systematic review revealed that the biggest risk factor associated with the development of Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome is decreased knee extension torque aka weak quads!

To help rehab from this condition, we need to focus on quad strength and more importantly, the right load at the right time. Our Patellofemoral Rehab and Patellofemoral Prehab programs on the Prehab app do just that - starting with the isometric loading of the tendon with progression to knee over toe based exercises to really target the quad muscle group, to eventual return to plyometrics and jumping-related tasks.

Stop waiting for your knee pain to get better and do something about it.

09/29/2025

There is no one-size-fits-all ACL rehab timeline🦵

Too many athletes rush the process—but the best ACL recovery is criteria-based, not just calendar-based. One study found that the rate of return to play after ACL reconstruction for football players was 67.2% and the mean time to return was 11.6 months (range, 35.8-55.8 weeks). Moral of the story? Rehab looks different for everyone - take your time and do what is best for your body and needs.

Here’s what a smart recovery timeline can look like:
📆 0–3 Months: Focus on ROM, neuromuscular control & strength
📆 3–6 Months: Progress to advanced movements if early goals are met
📆 9–12 Months: Return to sport only if cleared—graft healing matters
📆 Up to 24 Months: Some athletes need up to 2 years to fully return to peak performance

✅ The key? Meet the right rehab markers before returning to play—not just the months on a calendar.

🔗 Download the Prehab App via link in bio to start your ACL recovery the right way.

Reference: Ross BJ, Savage-Elliott I, Brown SM, Mulcahey MK. Return to Play and Performance After Primary ACL Reconstruction in American Football Players: A Systematic Review. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine. 2020;8(10). doi:10.1177/2325967120959654

09/24/2025

Back in April, I tore my ACL. One wrong move and everything shifted.

What most people don’t realize is this: what you do before surgery can make or break your recovery after. Research shows that strengthening and prehabbing ahead of ACL reconstruction can speed up recovery, improve surgical outcomes, and help you come back stronger.

But when I started preparing, I hit a wall—there simply wasn’t enough info out there on ACL prehab. That’s why our team of PTs built the ACL Surgery Prehab Program.

It’s a 12-week plan designed to get you ready—physically and mentally—for surgery. Think of it like training for a marathon. You wouldn’t just show up on race day unprepared, and surgery should be no different.

If you’re staring down ACL surgery, you don’t have to go in blind.
👉 Click here to check out the program: https://prehabapp.onelink.me/mYpq/6n2z045x

It’s comeback season. Let’s do this the right way.