Injuries and RehabTell us where it hurts! Do a quick search before asking about your shoulder injury to make sure your question hasn't already been answered (about 50 times), and read the sticky post first.
I'm using the article below as a vehicle for asking my question... when is HEAT also a part of treating an injury??? Should I throw out the old heating pad? I see a lot of products advertised such as wraps that will either get cold and then hot or simply just get hot but I don't see recommendations much for applying heat to an injury. What's the story? When is it appropriate to apply heat... or is it at all?
Quick tips for treating sports injuries.
Injury Prevention
Injury prevention is possible if you are prepared for your activity, both physically and mentally. Don't succumb to the weekend warrior syndrome by doing more than your training allows. However, you also need to balance training with rest to avoid overuse injuries. The following tips can help you avoid sports injuries:
Wear and use proper gear for your sport, including helmets, pads, shoes, sunglasses, gloves and layered clothing where appropriate.
Understand the rules and follow them. They are in place for a reason.
Warm up slowly before activity. This is especially important in sports that require quick, dynamic movements, such as basketball, and soccer.
Always use proper body mechanics in sports involving repetitive stress to the upper extremities. (tennis, baseball, golf). If necessary, get skills training from a certified coach or instructor.
Listen to your body. Pain is a warning sign of injury. You should not work through pain, but stop or slow your activity until the pain subsides.
Train for your sport. Use specific skills training to prepare for your sport.
Cross train for overall conditioning and to allow specific muscles to rest. Cross training will also alleviate boredom and staleness.
Treating an Acute Injury
If you suffer an acute injury, such as a strain or pull, immediately stop activity and use the RICE method of treatment. RICE stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation.
Rest will prevent further injury and will allow healing.
Ice will stop swelling as it constricts injured blood vessels and limits the bleeding in the injured area.
Compression further limits swelling and supports the injured joint.
Elevation uses gravity to reduce swelling in the injured area by reducing blood flow.
It is important to begin RICE as soon after injury as possible. Use a sheet or towel to protect the skin and apply ice immediately. Next wrap an elastic bandage around the ice and injured area. Don't wrap this so tightly that you cut off the blood supply, but it should be snug. Leave ice on for about 15 minutes every three hours or so during the day. Once the swelling decreases, you can begin gentle range of motion exercises for the affected joint.
When to See A Doctor
Most acute injuries can be attended to using RICE, but some injuries need to be seen and treated by a physician. You should call your doctor if you experience any of the following:
you have severe pain, or if pain persists for more than two weeks in a joint or bone.
pain radiates to another area of the body
you have 'point tenderness.' That is, you can cause pain by pressing on a specific area, but pain is not produced at the same point on the other side of the body.
you have any injury to a joint that produces significant swelling. If left untreated, joint injuries can become permanent.
you cannot move the injured part.
there is persistent numbness, tingling or weakness in the injured area.
your injury doesn't heal in three weeks.
you have an infection with pus, red streaks, a fever, or swollen lymph nodes.
Healing from Injuries
Healing from sports injuries can take some time. After swelling is reduced, healing is dependent upon blood supply. A good blood supply will help move nutrients, oxygen, and infection fighting cells to the damaged area to work on repair. Athletes tend to have a better blood supply, and heal faster than those with chronic illness, smokers, or those with sedentary lifestyles. Ultimately, healing time varies from person to person, and you can not force yourself to heal, you can only allow yourself to heal.
Average Healing Times
For someone in reasonable shape, the following are the average length of time to heal for various injuries:
Fractured finger or toe: 3 to 5 weeks.
Fractured clavicle: 6 to 10 weeks.
Sprained ankle: minor - 5 days; severe - 3 to 6 weeks.
Mild contusion: 5 days.
Muscle pulls: a few days to several weeks. This is very dependent upon the severity and location of the injury.
Mild shoulder separation: 7 to 14 days.
Returning to Sports
Healing time for any injury can be longer if you return to activity too soon. You should never exercise the injured part if you have pain during rest. When the injured part no longer hurts at rest, start exercising it slowly with simple range of motion exercises. If you feel pain, Stop and rest. Over time you can return to activity at a very low intensity, and build up to your previous level. Increase intensity of exercise only when you can do so without pain.
You may find that the injured part is now more susceptible to re-injury and you should pay close attention to any warning signs of over doing it. Soreness, aches and tension must be acknowledged or you may end up with an even more serious injury in the future. And finally, return to the above and practice injury prevention strategies from now on.
What I’m going to do is briefly explain what happens during an acute injury and then give you some solid guidelines to treat it based on the current research.
What happens during an acute injury?
Whether it’s a sprain (ligament injury), strain (muscle or tendon injury), or a contusion (a direct blow or compression) there is structural tissue damage to the muscles, tendons, and/or ligament. There can also be damage to the nerves and blood vessels that supply these areas. This is the primary traumatic damage.
The primary damage results in cellular debris that must be removed before the new cells and tissues can replace the damaged ones. The broken nerves send pain messages to the brain, and broken blood vessels leak blood into the spaces around the surrounding undamaged cells. The bleeding causes swelling, but this is brief as a clot is formed just like when you cut your skin. This clotting results in a hematoma which is a fancy name for the cellular debris and blood left after the clot forms. It’s the body’s natural process to then remove this hematoma so healing can begin.
The problem with this process is that blood flow to the good tissue surrounding the injury site is slowed down and less blood gets to this tissue because of the damaged blood vessels. The cellular debris and protein-rich contents of the damaged cells also cause more fluid to pass from the blood stream into the injured area. That means less oxygen to the good tissue that can result in what’s called a secondary hypoxic (lack of oxygen) injury. In addition, the enzymes the body sends out to break up and digest the cellular debris can destroy surrounding good tissue if they are allowed to come in contact.
This simply means that even more tissue becomes damaged and more swelling occurs not from the direct cause of the injury (strain, sprain, or contusion) but rather from the natural processes associated with inflammation.
Ice to the Rescue
By now I would hope that everyone has hear of applying ice to an acute injury as soon as possible.
Here’s why.
Ice slows down the metabolism of the undamaged tissues and prevents further damage that can result from the secondary hypoxic injury mentioned above. It also reduces the amount of swelling (caused by edema). By the way, once the swelling is there it’s there, ice doesn’t actually get rid of swelling. It simply prevents further accumulation of fluid.
Guidelines for Ice Application
Apply ice intermittently. A good guideline is to apply it for 30 minutes every 2 hours. If you’re still very active, apply ice every hour as the tissues rewarm faster. DO NOT APPLY ICE CONTINUALLY AS IT IS UNNECESSARY AND MAY RESULT IN FROSTBITE!
Continue ice applications for 12 to 72 hours depending on severity (more severe = longer treatment period).
You may begin gentle, progressive movement of the injured are 1-24 hours after injury after applying ice. The movement is a great way to accelerate the clearance of cellular debris. Just don’t be so aggressive that you cause further damage.
Follow the guideline of RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) to help control edema.
REST – reduce the overall use of the injured body part to prevent further damage
Ice – apply ice based on the guidelines above
Compression – use an ace wrap to compress the area
Elevation – keep the injured body part raised higher than the heart
When to Apply Heat
Don't apply heat until the circulation is somewhat repaired (about 72 hours) or again you'll get the secondary hypoxic injury.
When you're just dealing with soreness in the post injury period (at around 10 days), use heat to deal with the soreness. Muscle spasm will respond best to cold, but you can then use a combo of heat, flexibility training, and cold.
I hope this gives you some incentive to treat your injuries appropriately, however minor, to keep you in your best condition to play your best golf this season.
My football team recently asked me to find some info on rehab after injuries.
the post on treatment of acute injuries is very good and i would like to use it to help them, is it ok to use it or will i be in trouble for using it? it is just some info for my friends but as someone else wrote it i thought i should check
thanks guys
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Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever
ok cheers
don't worry im not selling the info, just wanted to help a few team mates, plus if someone asked me and i didnt have the article id prob get something wrong anyway, easy way to spot a fake [img]smile.gif[/img]
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Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever
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