Injury Prevention Exercises: A Physiotherapist's Guide to Staying Out of the Clinic

The evidence for this isn't marginal. A large meta-analysis of injury prevention programmes found strength training reduced sports injuries by roughly two-thirds and overuse injuries by around half, while proprioception (balance) training reduced injuries by close to half, while stretching alone showed no significant protective effect (Lauersen et al., meta-analysis, British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2014). The takeaway is specific: strength and balance work earns its place in a prevention routine, rather than stretching alone.

Three things, most weeks:

• Strength basics: a squat pattern, a push, a pull and a hinge, two to three times a week. Bodyweight is a genuine starting point; you don't need a gym to begin.
• Balance and proprioception work: single-leg standing, progressing to single-leg reaching or an unstable surface, a few minutes a few times a week.
• A movement-prep warm-up before sport: a short routine of dynamic movement and activation before training or a match, rather than starting cold.

Adults returning to exercise after time off, weekend sports players whose training load jumps sharply at the weekend, and anyone with a past injury: a previous injury is one of the strongest predictors of a future one in the same area, which makes targeted prevention work particularly worthwhile if that's you.

A general routine like the one above is a solid default, but it isn't tailored to you. If you have persistent niggles, a specific past injury that keeps flaring, or genuine uncertainty about your technique on key exercises, a PhysioHub assessment can build a programme around your actual risk factors rather than a generic template. See our guide on what a physiotherapist actually does for what that first assessment involves. If a flare-up is stopping you from training through a prevention programme, a TENS machine can sometimes help take the edge off while you keep moving, though it doesn't replace addressing the underlying weakness or load issue.

Every summer runs the same course locally: the evenings get long enough to add mileage on the Cuckoo Trail, preseason restarts, and a few weeks later the clinic fills with calves and hamstrings that went from nothing to full training in a fortnight. Alex set the clinic up with that pattern in mind, having lost seasons himself to avoidable injuries across track and field, international canoe sprint and now powerlifting.

Prevention has better evidence behind it than most people assume. The Lauersen meta-analysis in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found strength training cut sports injuries by roughly two-thirds and overuse injuries by about half, while stretching alone showed no significant protective effect. The catch is specificity: a programme found online addresses whichever weak links its author had. Side-to-side strength testing against your actual training history usually narrows it to the two or three things that matter for you, which is also what makes a programme survive a busy month instead of being abandoned in week three.

Our sports injuries and performance service covers that testing and the programme that comes out of it.

Strength and balance work, done consistently, meaningfully cuts injury risk, and the evidence for this is strong and specific. A simple routine is a good place to start; a tailored one is better if you've got a history of niggles or a specific past injury. And if prevention comes too late and you're already sidelined, the same staged thinking applies to getting back; see returning to sport after injury for how a safe comeback actually works.