Rehab That Works: How We Help You Rebuild Strength and Return to Sport

Getting back to your favourite sport or activity after an injury can feel like a big mountain to climb. You don’t just want the pain to go away—you want to build strength, move well, feel strong, and trust your body again.

At Inner Strength Bayside, we’re here to guide you through a smarter rehab process that’s not just about healing, but about truly rebuilding your strength, resilience, and confidence.

Strength is the Foundation of Recovery

When you’re recovering from an injury, strength training isn’t just a bonus—it’s essential. Injury often leads to weakness in the affected area and beyond. That’s why we focus on restoring multiple components of strength, each playing an important role in both performance and injury prevention:

• Maximal Strength: Your ability to generate force—like lifting, pushing, or squatting heavy loads.
• Rate of Force Development: How quickly you can create force, such as during sprints, jumps, or quick changes in direction.
• Reactive Strength: The ability to absorb and redirect force quickly—like landing or stopping suddenly.
• Repeatable Strength: How well you can produce force repeatedly, such as during a match, a training session, or a long hike.

We make sure your rehab builds not just strength, but the right type of strength for your body and your goals.

A Tailored, Individualised Approach

Every injury is different—and so is every person. That’s why our rehab programs are fully individualised. We begin with a detailed assessment to understand:

• The specifics of your injury and how it occurred
• The physical demands of your sport, work, or lifestyle
• Your current movement patterns, strength levels, and asymmetries
• Your personal goals, timelines, and concerns

From this foundation, we build a rehab plan that evolves with you—progressing your load, movements, and intensity at the right time for your body.

Some Injuries Need Rest, Some Need Load

It’s important to understand that different injuries respond best to different approaches. For example:

• Acute joint sprains (like an ankle or knee ligament sprain) often require a period of relative rest early on. These injuries follow a fairly predictable healing timeline, and our role is to help protect the joint, guide early movement, and gradually reintroduce load at the right time.
• Tendinopathies (like Achilles, patellar, or gluteal tendon pain), on the other hand, typically benefit from controlled loading. These injuries don’t have a fixed timeline. Progress is based on how your symptoms respond to strengthening exercises over time. Managing the load—not just resting—is key.

Knowing which path to take is a vital part of getting your rehab right. That’s where professional guidance makes all the difference.

Training Smarter: Two Key Strategies

To get you back to full strength and performance, we use two complementary streams of rehab:

1. Exercises That Target the Injured Area

These movements focus on rebuilding strength, coordination, and resilience in the injured region. They’re introduced carefully and progressed based on your symptoms and capacity.

Examples include:

• Isometric holds (e.g., wall sits, long-lever bridges, calf raises for tendinopathies)
• Controlled joint loading (like slant board squats for knees)
• Groin and hip strengthening (such as Copenhagen holds)
• Unilateral (single-leg) work to address imbalances and stability

We keep a close eye on how your body responds. Some mild discomfort is often part of effective rehab, but pain should never be the boss—you are.

2. Exercises That Keep the Rest of Your Body Strong

While your injury recovers, we don’t let everything else switch off. We keep your body strong and conditioned so you return to sport not just healed, but ready.

Examples include:

• Sled pushes or cycling for conditioning
• Leg press or trap bar deadlifts to build global lower body strength
• Upper body resistance training to stay balanced
• Core stability and control for better movement overall

This approach helps you stay fit, mentally engaged, and confident during your rehab journey.

Rehab Progress That Matches You

Rather than rigid timelines, we build your rehab around how you’re progressing. Recovery isn’t one-size-fits-all—it depends on your injury, training history, sport, and goals.

We generally think in stages of rehab, but how quickly or slowly you move through them is totally individualised:

Early Stage

• Goal: Calm symptoms, restore basic movement, and introduce gentle strength
• Focus: Isometrics, range-of-motion, low-load control

Mid Stage

• Goal: Build strength, balance, and control in meaningful movements
• Focus: Squats, lunges, step-ups, single-leg strength, tempo work

Late Stage

• Goal: Restore power, speed, and confidence in sport-specific actions
• Focus: Jumping, landing, cutting, acceleration, and deceleration – depending on your individual sporting demands

We reassess regularly and adjust your plan based on your pain levels, strength gains, and functional goals.

The Inner Strength Difference

At Inner Strength Bayside, we combine evidence-based physiotherapy with smart, progressive strength and conditioning to help you return to sport or activity—and stay there.

Whether you’re an athlete, a weekend warrior, or just want to move better and feel stronger, we’re here to guide you back with a plan that makes sense for you.

By Petra Ruhl, Physiotherapist – Inner Strength Bayside