Is there something you can do before you have surgery to help you heal faster or progress quicker?
Absolutely there is. Pre-habilitation, or prehab, exercises are just as important as after you have surgery. Okay, so let’s talk shoulders for example. There’s a lot of people getting shoulder surgeries. Some of the doctors now, and as physical therapists we totally agree with this, are recommending therapy pre-surgery, just so you can maintain or increase your range of motion. This will help maintain some strength levels depending upon what the injury is or what they’re going to need surgery for. At the very least you will want tomaintain as much function as you can prior to going into surgery.
We’ve found a lot of good success with this when we’ve been given the opportunity to work with people before they have a surgery. Probably the ones we get the most of are knee patients, especially the total knees replacements, and they send them in here to maintain their range of motion as well as to keep a functional strength level within their pain tolerances. What these patients have found is that they do better after surgery simply because they’re going in better prepared. They haven’t lost as much range of motion and they’re more functionally strong. Keeping your blood flowing and muscles strong is very important prior to surgery.
Our recommendation is you should train for a surgery just like you would train for an athletic event. If you prepare in that way, most people will come through much better and faster. So what we’re going to do is give you some exercise and moving suggestions if you have a surgery coming up, starting with shoulders.
Subscribe and follow along to our YouTube channel where we will show you some simple exercises you can do at home to prepare for surgery.