I often get asked when and how often people need to do prehab/rehab stuff for aches, pains and even old injuries. They ask how often they need to foam roll, stretch and even do activation exercises.

And my answer….

Before you have pain!

If you’ve had an injury or you know you are prone to aches and pains in certain areas, you need to take care of those areas before pain arises or before you do things that could lead to pain if those areas aren’t loosened and activated.

And if pain has flared up in an areas, you need to be extra diligent to do everything you can to alleviate.

How often you need to do the prehab/rehab will vary. If you stay on top of things, a few minutes each day may suffice.

If you wait till things start to flare up, you may have to spend more time on prehab activities.

But I would like to point out that if you have neck, shoulder or upper back pain from sitting at a desk all day, rolling out for one minute every other day isn’t going to do it.

Just think about how long you sit with poor posture….Does one minute of pain prevention (aka foam rolling, stretching, activation) really seem like it equals the time you sit with poor posture?

Does it really seem like that minute can counteract the 9 hours?

NOPE.

So why do we all expect results when we basically spend only minutes a day doing the right things and hours doing the wrong things?

The thing is we can’t.

While there is no exact amount of time we need to spend doing rehab/prehab exercises and stretches, we do need to consider just how much time we spend each day doing things to counteract all the good we do in the gym.

That one hour each day we spend there with our 5-10 minutes of warm up (foam rolling, stretching and activation) simply isn’t enough.

But that doesn’t mean you need to spend hours each day to see benefit. Five minutes when you wake up, the occasional stretch or rolling at your desk, 5-10 minutes before you workout, a few minutes after your workout and maybe a minute or two before you go to bed.

If you did that every day…WOAH!

At most, what I outlined above, is like 30 minutes out of your day…AT MOST.

And yet we can’t find the time for that?!?

Suffering from pain and injury is our alternative and yet we skip those 30 minutes and wonder why we never get better.

30 MINUTES a day! An excuse to get up and stretch while sitting at our desk all day! Or heck simply a stretch in the doorway when we get up to go the bathroom. (AHEM…Look at all those stretches you can easily do at your desk!)

Or some balancing and leg swings when we brush our teeth to keep our ankles strong.

This is seriously not hard stuff. Shoot it isn’t even as hard as finding 15-30 solid minutes to workout! Almost all of these things can be done while doing something else.

Watching TV? Sit on a ball on the ground to roll out your glutes, hips and low back to get rid of your achy low back!

Simple little prehab/rehab things can go a long way to keeping an area pain and injury-free.

Because even if you did the initial rehab after an injury, you are never done.

You ALWAYS have to take care of that area and make sure to maintain strength in the muscles up and down the kinetic chain from that disruption.

Because every day we do things to create imbalances and potentially upset old aches and pains or create new ones.

So to live pain free…What is a few minutes each day on exercises to keep you balanced?

Are you diligent about doing prehab activities – foam rolling, stretching, activation, balance and stability stuff?

How do you fit those things into your day?

Here are some great tips and exercises to help you prevent and alleviate minor aches and pains:

• 5 Quick Fixes For Wrist and Elbow Pain
• Alleviate Low Back Pain
• The Complete Foam Rolling Video Course and E-Book

NOTE: This is discussing previously rehabbed injuries and minor aches and pains. If you suffer from an injury, make sure to do the physical therapy rehab prescribed to you!