2 Ways Physical Therapy Can Help Prevent Injuries
One of our goals is to help people see that physical therapy is about more than just treating injuries. For many athletes, what we do in the clinic can be used as preventative medicine, not just something you turn to after pain shows up. Here are two ways we make physical therapy work proactively for you.
1) Find Underlying Movement Dysfunction and Weakness
Just like it makes sense to get a yearly physical to check on your overall health, it’s just as important to stay on top of your orthopedic health. A sports physical therapy evaluation looks at how your body moves from head to toe and uncovers the small weaknesses and movement limitations that most people never notice until they turn into pain.
Here’s the thing most athletes don’t realize: injuries rarely start when pain shows up. More often, they’ve been quietly building for months (or years) due to subtle strength imbalances or movement restrictions.
Take shoulder pain, for example. In most cases, it comes down to one—or more—of the following:
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Rotator cuff weakness, which compromises shoulder stability
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Mobility restrictions, often in the lats, pecs, or shoulder joint itself
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Weakness around the shoulder blade, which affects how the shoulder moves under load
In my experience, it’s rare to see shoulder pain without at least one of these issues being present. The good news? These problems are highly preventable, but only if you catch them early. That’s exactly why I’m such a big advocate for proactive sports physical therapy and injury prevention.
I’m not saying this to scare you or to suggest something is “wrong.” What I am saying is that small, strategic adjustments to your current training can dramatically improve your durability and help you stay pain-free and resilient long term.
And here’s the bonus most people don’t expect: when you strengthen your weakest link, your performance in the gym and on the field takes off. Which brings us to the next point…
2) Learn fresh exercises you haven’t tried before
I’ll make a bold claim: 95% of the athletes I work with learn at least one exercise they’ve never done before.
And more often than not, those exercises expose gaps in strength or control they didn’t even know existed. We’re all creatures of habit. We stick to the lifts we’re good at and avoid the ones that challenge us. Over time, that’s how weaknesses slip through the cracks.
Here’s the key: these exercises don’t require a full overhaul of your program. Using the shoulder example again, if you’re bench pressing, what are you doing during your rest periods? Scrolling your phone? Zoning out? That downtime is the perfect opportunity to layer in rotator cuff and shoulder stability work.
Pairing pressing movements with targeted shoulder exercises doesn’t add time to your workout, but it does build the durability and injury resistance your body needs to keep progressing.
Not into supersets? No problem. These movements can be added to your warm-up, cooldown, or accessory work. I don’t throw guarantees around lightly, but I can confidently say this: adding the right exercises in the right places leads to massive improvements in both injury prevention and performance.
Conclusion
If you’ve always thought physical therapy was only for rehabbing injuries, I hope these examples help shift that perspective.
Sports physical therapy isn’t just rehab, it’s preventative medicine for athletes who want to train hard and stay healthy.
If you’re ready to experience that for yourself, click the link below to book a sports physical therapy evaluation. And if now isn’t the right time, be sure to follow along on Instagram and YouTube for training tips, movement education, and strategies to keep you lifting and performing at your best.
I’m Jake Souva, and I’d love to help you write your rehab success story.
My experience as both a patient and a physical therapist shaped the business I wanted to create: an environment where you feel heard and are pushed to achieve greatness.
The best part of what I do is helping people like you see what’s truly possible through a personalized plan and relentless teamwork to get you back to your strongest self. I would love to help you at Souva PT and Performance, my Sports Physical Therapy Clinic in Shelby Township, Michigan.