By Dr Spencer Brown - Physical Performance Coach

With the first ever World Tens Series rugby tournament approaching I thought it fitting to base this week’s article on the importance of being ‘robust’. 

‘Robustness’ is a word I use everyday when interacting with my clients yet very few have linked the word and its definition to their own rehabilitation and conditioning goals. Here’s why I think it’s such an important attribute to possess.

ROBUST Adj. ROBUSTNESS n. ROBUSTLY adv.

1. The state of being strong and healthy 

2. The quality of being strong and unlikely to fail (i.e. sturdy in construction)

3. Able to withstand or overcome adverse conditions

4. Uncompromising and forceful

As someone who coaches and rehabilitates clients day in, day out it still amazes me how so few are ‘robust’ enough to cope with the physical demands they place on their bodies. When it comes to niggles and injuries many people start pointing the finger at ‘the training programme’, ‘the shoes’, ‘ the terrain’, ‘the job’, ‘the mattress’ when in most cases they’re just not robust enough to cope.

‘Ok, so what is ‘robustness’?

Ultimately, it will mean different things depending on what you want to achieve but for the avid recreational athlete ‘robustness’ is demonstrating competency in the following:

• Mobility

• Stability 

• Strength

• Precision (of fundamental movements)

• Endurance

As I mentioned earlier, your occupation (mechanic vs desk job) and/or recreational activities (swimming vs rugby) will determine what level of robustness is required to keep you active and pain- and injury-free. For example, rugby players need to be incredibly robust to withstand the external impacts from the ground and tacklers for 80 minutes! On the other hand, swimmers only need to be robust enough to withstand the external forces of water resistance – in fact most elite swimmers need robustness to cope with the demands of their gym training programmes. 

Now you know what it is the question is ‘how do I know if I’m robust or not’? 

Unfortunately, you won’t know because it’s impossible to self-test all of the above attributes. That said, there are specialist sports physiotherapists, strength & conditioning coaches and personal trainers with the required knowledge to determine what level of robustness you have and, more importantly, what level YOU need for your physical demands.  

How stable are you? Why not come and try out our ‘dynamic stability’ assessment and find out.

Our approach at Island Rehab Hub is always first to assess the fundamentals of human movement and global muscle activation. From here a targeted corrective exercise programme is given followed by mobility and stability exercises. Once a client demonstrates competency in these areas then, and only then, can a strength training programme be given. This process may seem long-winded, boring and uncool but it is the correct process – anything else will only deliver sub-optimal results and possible injury.

If you would like to know more please get in touch or book in for an assessment of your ‘robustness’.

Look for blog posts to follow ranging in topics from general fitness, strength training and CrossFit to knee problems,
reasons why people are in pain and why I don't recommend over-stretching the hip flexors.

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