One of the many popular phrases with sporting circles is Injury prevention and it tends to used by many different professionals from sports trainers, coaches to Physiotherapists. There is a great deal of research now available on this subject which shows if properly applied rehabilitation programmes can improve athletic performance while attempting to prevent injuries.
Currently there is no specific exercise or programme that has been shown to prevent an injury for longer than the duration of the programme. The best such programme was developed in Norway to prevent recurrent Hamstring strains in professional athletes and when applied had a 100% success rate. But the year after completing the programme the injuries returned. In other words injury prevention exercises only work if done all the time.
The interesting thing about the Injury prevention (and some rehabilitation programmes) is they often increase an individuals’ athletic performance because they challenge your body to improve. The key to improving performance is advancing the exercises regularly with the help a skilled professional. One of the key things to remember is that the programme needs to be sports specific to enhance performance (ie Cycle training does not improve running performance).
So if you are a keen sports person or recovering from an injury get advice from a professional that can help you to go beyond just returning to sport, but to excelling at it.