Prehab
The emphasis here is on prevention and correction. It is a tailored exercise regime before warm up or training. In an elite athlete there are often overuse injuries that lead to imbalances in the muscle groups, and by overprotecting the injured area, improper technique is reinforced leading to further problems. Prehab is designed to identify the problem areas, most often the core group muscles, and stimulating them to actively fire before embarking on training.
Carrie Smith is a physiotherapist with the Canadian National Rugby Team reports great improvement in athlete’s performance and prevention of injury. By identifying and activating problem muscles, mostly working the core muscles, it ensures a good platform of active muscles and proper stability for the limb muscles for training.
Tyler Hotson, a seasoned professional and a veteran lock of the Canadian National Rugby Team is convinced. He had in the past experienced some chronic recurring injuries that are getting under control with a prehab program before taking to training.
Activation
Activation is a pre-game ritual before the warm out to get yourself to an aroused energy level and ready to perform. It is a short low intensity workout designed to stimulate the body and mind for a game. Its objective is to stimulate the muscle groups, concentrating on fluid movements in multiple planes and rotation. It should stimulate coordination so that the central and peripheral nerve systems are stimulated as well as the muscles. It should not produce any significant fatigue. It is about whole body motion that switches on synergistic and stabilizing muscles, as well as the sensation of muscle position or proprioception.
Matt Barr, the Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Canadian National Rugby Team discussed another level of activation involving explosive strength training a few days before a game to stimulate the nervous and endocrine system to ensure natural maximal levels in the body of neurotransmitters and of invigorating hormones such as testosterone.
The steps in activation helps to get the mind, the psyche, the nervous, the endocrine and muscular systems all stimulated, coordinated and focused at the task ahead; optimized game performance.