Injury treatment and prevention
Achieve your optimum performance
Achieve your optimum performance
At some time or another anyone involved in sporting activities whether at recreational, club or elite level will be faced with injuries or restricted mobility, which adversely affects your performance.
The table below tells you what you need to do at different times with an acute injury. By following the advice below you can make an acute injury heal in a way that it does not become a chronic injury later on.
| Time scale | What to do? | Real example of acute injury |
|---|---|---|
| First 48 hours |
The first 48 hours are critical. You need to reduce
inflammation following an acute injury. Any swelling or bruising shows
that there has been tissue damage. RICE is the best way of reducing
inflammation.
R - rest I - ice C - compression E - elevation |
Tennis player: Right leg in the splits position resulted in right adductor (inner thigh) tear.Was unable to walk, so enforced rest!Ice was applied for 2 minutes every 10 minutes.Tubigrip (elasticated bandage) was put on the right thigh |
| 2-5 days | You may have some ultrasound at a physiotherapy clinic, but no soft tissue massage and no hot baths! This will only increase circulation and swelling. The tissue is healing but it is very brittle and vulnerable to re-tearing | Ultrasound and ice applied. Able to walk. Every day the injury heals at a speedy rate. The visible signs: bruising gets lighter each day and walking is easier |
| 2-3 weeks | Scar tissue is forming. Sports massage is now applicable. It's important to get scar tissue to move in the same way as the surrounding soft tissue. Scar tissue does not turn into muscle, so it has to be moulded to do the job of the torn muscle or soft tissue. It takes up to 9 months to heal so you have time to shape it, but if left untreated it can be lumpy and restrict movement later on | Able to cycle gently on a stationary bike with low resistance and no gradient. Sports massage was applied and stretching within the limits of the injury |
| 3-5 weeks | Continue sports massage. Slowly need to build up to your sport. You need to test out the movements you do in your sport without actually playing or doing the sport competitively. This is important since you would move faster and sharper in a competitive situation | Only at week 5 able to run slowly in a straight line, with no gradient. Short run and then checked for any problems. Tennis court movement was practised without playing the game. |
| 6 weeks | If able to practise the movements of your sport without any problems during or afterwards, you will be able to go back to the sport competitively. Remember, scar tissue takes a longer time to heal than 6 weeks, so you must continue to stretch the area and continue with sports massage or treatment to keep the tissue flexible | Able to play first competitive tennis match. No problems during or after the match and no recurrent injury 2 years after the acute injury |
If you did not treat an acute injury correctly you may find that scar tissue was left "lumpy" and restricts your movement or is painful on exercise. Even if you did treat the original injury well, it may have been an area which is difficult to heal. Ligaments and tendons, or muscles which work eccentrically (lengthening whilst working) such as hamstrings can prove difficult. Try the following:
Sports Massage - you may need friction techniques to break down scar tissue and re-mould it to do the job of soft tissue. It can be painful but it increases your range of movement.
Book an appointment for Sports massage now.
Specific stretches and warm up - you need a rigorous stretching routine.
- ensure you are stretching the right
muscles.
- hold stretches for 30 seconds plus to develop the
length of the muscle and do it every day not just following
exercise.
The idea of stretching before sport has now been dispelled as static stretches momentarily weakens muscle so you will lose power. However, you should still warm up. A good warm up involves gentle running or cycling to increase your cardiovascular activity. This pushes oxygen around your muscles, and warms the muscles up. A warm muscle is less likely to pull during activity. You should also mimic the movements you perform in your sport so that are getting the muscles attuned to the activity you are about to do possibly at speed.
Book for an appointment now for advice and demonstrations of specific stretches you may need to do for your sport. See Pilates for more information
The demands of your sport can create muscle imbalance. Racquet sports, for example, demand one side of the body to a different job to the other side. Although long distance runners would expect to use both sides of their body equally, the repetitive running motion can magnify imbalance in the hips, knees and feet and cause pain and stiffness anywhere between the lower back and feet..
Whilst stretching will certainly help keep muscles longer and more flexible, you need to focus on specific muscle strengthening to help prevent injury and improve performance. The advice for chronic injury is relevant to muscle imbalance too. Sports Massage can help lengthen your muscles. However, you have to address the cause of the problem. Pilates classes or Pilates tailored to your sport (individual lessons) will help strengthen your core muscles and create better muscle balance. See testimonials to see how Pilates and Sports Massage has helped others.