Injury Prevention: Build the Buffer Zone

We often have athletes and physical therapy clients ask “how can I avoid injury/re-injury?”  Our approach - build the buffer zone.  

Imagine two lines.  One is your body’s physical capacity - strength, mobility, motor control, endurance, power, etc.  The other is the threshold for injury.  Injury occurs when your physical capacity line is parallel to or below your threshold for injury - the activity that injured you required more physical capacity than you possessed.  We want to put as much space between those two lines as possible, with your physical capacity being far above that of your sport’s injury threshold.  This space is the buffer zone between where you live - your everyday strength, mobility, etc - and where you get injured.  The more space you have, the less likely you are to be injured.  

How do we build that buffer zone?  It’s not in physical therapy (although sometimes it can start here), the chiropractor’s office, the cryochamber, your compression boots, the flavor-of-the-day recovery trend, or your physician’s office.  It’s in the gym.  A consistent, well rounded, long term training program is key to building and maintaining your physical capacity, and therefore, your natural protection against injury.  Check out a few of our client's success stories to see this concept in action!

Our first success story is that of a young baseball player.  He had performed at a high level from a young age, but was always injured.  Every few months, he’d be in physical therapy for something else hurting.  Sometimes it was a repeat injury, like the traditional elbow and shoulder pain that so many overhead athletes experience, but he also had one time injuries to other body areas.  For several years, his PT encouraged him to get into a consistent, structured strength training routine, and when he finally did, it was a game changer.  He hasn’t been to PT one time since he started training.  Investing in your health and performance through a strength and conditioning routine pays dividends!

Our next success story is a woman in her 60s with chronic back pain.  She was always seeing a chiropractor because her back would go “out.”  She’d also done injections, medications, and physical therapy.  Despite it all, her back still gave her trouble and she was worried that surgery was the next step.  She began strength training consistently, including heavy lifting.  She was fearful of re-injuring her back at first, but as she got stronger, her back bothered her less and less.  One of her proudest moments of 2024 was making it 18 months without an episode of her back going out.  From living in constant fear and pain to setting PRs - that’s what I call a win!  

Our final story is that of a former collegiate swimmer.  While she was competing in college, she had a constant low level of back pain that would flare up from time to time, to the point of being debilitating.  Her training regime focused on her pool workouts, with some lighter strength training on the side.  After her collegiate swimming career was over, she shifted her focus to strength training.  She wasn’t expecting her back pain to change.  Like so many, she assumed this was just something she would live with.  Three years later, she’s deadlifting 300# and has no back pain!  

Avoiding injury is possible when you build the buffer zone!  Not sure where to start?  Our physical therapy and sport performance teams can work together to build a customized "build the buffer zone" program to keep you in the game!