Prevent Running Injuries @ The Rehab Lab

Ever since her days as a student-athlete at Raffles Girls School, Mok Ying Rong, now 26, has always believed very strongly in injury prevention.

Said Ying, “When I began running, 12 years ago, I was always getting injured and trying to think of ways to treat my injuries. Then after that, when I went into physiotherapy school, I realised that I could actually prevent my injuries rather than just treating them.”

Her most serious injury had been sustaining five stress fractures on her left foot, which was caused from excessive hard running.

Her Run Free Initiative

She added, “So I started an initiative called Run Free and as I gained experience in physiotherapy care in both a hospital and non-hospital setting, I began to realise that regardless of whether you are a brisk walker or a high level runner, you need to move well. So in this way, injury prevention is something that has to be customised to everyone, and should not take on a cookie-cutter approach.”

Run Free, as the name suggested, was an initiative where Ying believed that running should be pain-free for all, made possible if people can run free from injuries.

Setting Up The Rehab Lab

Shortly after setting up Run Free, Ying reconnected with Fadhli, 30, a long-time friend of hers and she realised that both of them had similar interests in physiotherapy and injury prevention.

Said Ying, “This is what gave us the idea to set up our own space, The Rehab Lab Singapore. This place was founded on the notion of high evidence based care for not only injury treatment, but also prevention.”

She added, “Since Pre-habilitation and physiotherapy have always been my areas of interest, The Rehab Lab Singapore is an extension and physical location for me to engage what I believe in, so it’s great. I have always been pushing and promoting Pre-habilitation but I did not have my own space in the past, so I was not completely free in being able to teach people what I wanted. With The Rehab Lab, I hope to step out and bring in more therapists who are passionate about injury prevention too. We want to form a team to educate more Singaporeans about injury prevention.”

The Rehab Lab Singapore Was Launched Last Sunday

The Rehab Lab Singapore, located within the compounds of the Civil Service Club at Tessensohn Road, had officially opened its doors last Sunday morning with a Launch Party, which had been attended by many familiar faces from the Singapore running community. Overall I would say that several hundred people had probably turned up.

Said Ying, “This is a fantastic location for us, because this club promotes a lot of active lifestyle, so we decided to move here. There’s also a gym next door that’s keen on injury prevention too. So we are very supported by the family surrounding us here and the facilities, too, are great for us to grow and start off.”

I was at the opening too, and the highlight of the launch event was the cake-cutting ceremony, which took place just before noon and had been the graced by guest of honour Oon Jin Teik, who is the CEO of the Singapore Sports Hub.

At the event, there had been plenty of food and drinks throughout the afternoon, as well as Instagram photo-taking activities with prizes to be won, and a large wall for guests to write their well-wishes to The Rehab Lab and movie screenings on the story of The Rehab Lab.

It had been a simple, yet intimate event and I had the chance to catch up with many people whom I knew, including Ying herself – whom I was possibly seeing not dressed in her running attire, for the first time. As well, there had been great opportunities for networking and meeting new people in the local running and fitness circles too.

Said Ying, “I want to thank everyone for their support in taking the effort to come down and understand more about injury prevention. These are encouraging steps for me and my team to improve and reach out to even more people.”

Services Offered By The Rehab Lab Singapore

As well, guests at the Launch Party also had the chance to tour The Rehab Lab Singapore’s premises as well as to find out more about the programmes that are on offer at the new physiotherapy clinic.

The two flagship programmes that The Rehab Lab Singapore are promoting, are the TRL Run Free Programme and the TRL PP Programme, both priced at S$380 each.

Besides these, though, The Rehab Lab Singapore also offers the standard Physiotherapy (S$180) and Sports Massage (S$90) services, too.

TRL Run Free Programme

The TRL Run Free programme is more than a pure run gait analysis, according to Ying. On top of giving people a run gait analysis, The Rehab Lab will also advise runners on footwear and any orthotics changes, if needed.

Added Ying, “Under this programme, we will also assess runners on their flexibility and strength, based on components needed for injury-free running and this is customised to each individual’s running level and goals, regardless of whether they are a beginner or an elite athlete.”

TRL PP Programme

PP stands for Pre-habilitation Protocol in the TRL PP Programme.

Explained Ying, “This is for anyone looking to take up a new sport, but is always getting injured in his or her current life activities, be it standing in high heels all day and always getting foot pains. So we teach the person how to manage their activities better, for example, how to stand around in heels without getting feet pain and how these can be managed according to cater to your lifestyle demands.”

Ying stressed that this programme is not just for athletes and indicated that housewives and office workers can benefit too.

Said Ying, “For a housewife, we can talk about her lifestyle needs, for instance, what she does from Mondays to Sundays and tailor her treatment plan to cater to her lifestyle. For instance, does she use a lot of her wrist muscles when she’s cleaning the windows?”

As for running, Ying explained that this activity utilises a lot of the ankles, feet and knees. As a result, the load is absorbed by these muscles and not shared by the entire body.

Ying added, “That is why a lot of runners get knee and ankle pains. They are not using their hips. Instead you need to let the whole body function in sync by sharing the load. You cannot just place all the demands on certain muscles and expect everything to be OK. Running is a symmetrical sport and there are groups of muscles that are supposed to be involved in pushing you forward. You want the muscles to all work together rather than just having some muscles in the group doing all the work instead.”

Ultimately, The Rehab Lab hopes to target those who are not injured, as well as those who are.

Said Ying, “For injured patients, we will treat you based on the Reactive Model Of Care and if you are not, then we look at your movement through our two above programmes, and then see how to optimise it to suit your lifestyle, through education.”

Both Founders Are Strong Believers In Injury Prevention

While Ying’s speciality is in running and other weight bearing sports such as cycling, her areas of interest are slightly different to her co-partner, Fadhli, who specialises in workplace ergonomics and has a keen interest in team sports such as football. In fact, before starting The Rehab Lab with Ying, he had previously worked with the Football Association of Singapore, partnering the national team as a physiotherapist for high-level national competitions.

Said Ying, “In that way, our differences complement each other well. But that said, we are both strong believers in injury prevention. The current physiotherapy scene is all about reactive physiotherapy but we are trying to increase the demand for proactive physiotherapy. This is a new area where we feel has a lot of potential for growth.”

People Are Fearful About Physiotherapy

Ying feels that a lot of people are fearful about physiotherapy treatment and she hopes to change this mindset.

Said Ying, “Physiotherapy is seen as a reactive treatment. You get injured and you go for physiotherapy. So people are not enthusiastic about it. That is the vibe that we are getting in the local context and we want to make physiotherapy a lifestyle thing instead. So with The Rehab Lab, we are rebranding it into Pre-habilitation instead. This requires education, definitely, so we have been giving workshops to corporates and small interest groups on a weekly basis to reach out to Singaporeans and tell them about injury prevention.”

She continued, “I really think that there is so much more that we can do with physiotherapy. A lot of physiotherapists are treating the symptoms and giving reactive treatment care, rather than looking at the root cause to a problem, which is sad, as they are not fully embracing what physiotherapy can do for people. I feel that more physiotherapists should step up and provide proactive care. That is where we really hope to make a change.”

Treat The Root Cause, Not The Symptoms

While Ying admitted that treatment of the symptoms to a problem may work in the short term, it is definitely not a solution for the long-term.

Explained Ying, “This mindset may be hard to change, because we all like quick fixes. We get excited when we step out of the clinic feeling fantastic but these quick fixes are merely symptom management rather than anything else. To get rid of the problem completely, requires patience. Rehabilitation is a thing that requires time and injury prevention is something that is ongoing. We are not pushing you to come in every day for the rest of your life. We just want to teach you how to improve your movement patterns to make you move better over time and prevent the injuries before they happen.”