Exercises - What’s the difference between rehabilitation and performance-oriented strength & conditioning?
by Ian Sung - Physiotherapist, Strength Clinic Academy
A fantastic question! To begin, let's delve into a fundamental understanding of our muscle system. Broadly speaking, our body's muscles can be categorised into stabilisers and movers. Stabilisers generate small force output and possess high energy endurance. Whereas movers typically generate significant force output but with lower energy endurance. The two need to work synchronously for optimal physical performance. Of the two, stabilisers hold greater significance and are often the focus of rehabilitation efforts. They can be likened to the foundation upon which we build the larger structure of our physical body. Strengthening these stabilisers is essential for overall physical resilience and performance.
Think of a cable bridge for example. It comprises towers supporting the bridge, held up by cables. These cables serve not only to sustain the structure but also enable the bridge to endure substantial weight and constant traffic over time. The stabilisers function similarly to the cables of the bridge. In our body, the ‘core’ muscles are the most well known stabilisers. When strengthened and used appropriately, the core helps stabilise our trunk, and deloads pressure off of our spine when we lift. Every part of our body has its own version of ‘core’ muscles, and more often than not, weakness in these ‘core’ muscles are what leads us to strains and injuries.
Neglecting the stabilizers and solely training the movers as a form of rehab increases the risk of further injury. Returning to the cable bridge analogy, weak cables would significantly reduce the load capacity of the bridge and towers. It would only be a matter of time before the bridge collapsed. With rehab, we aim to take it back to the basics, and teach you how to re-engage your ‘cables’ or ‘core’, so that they can fortify your joints and general body frame to be able to handle higher loads. However, merely learning to engage the stabilisers is insufficient for complete recovery.
The most important thing with rehab exercises, is applying it to your relevant goal. Take weightlifting for example. If your brain only understands how to engage your stabilisers in standing or sitting, then you also need to teach the brain to apply the muscle engagement to squats and deadlifts. Relevance is key, and it’s important to start from the basics. We always need to build from the foundation up, and that’s why rehab exercises often start with very low grade intensity, and we progressively load you back into your full exercise capacity.
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The healthboard What are the core muscles
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