Let’s begin by stating the obvious. If you’re an athlete, you have been, currently are, or will be injured at some point in your activity of choice. Why? Because it’s a complicated relationship we have with sport and emotion. Also because it takes a long time to truly be in tune with your body and heed any warning signs of danger ahead. Athletes naturally become accustomed to blocking pain so if a little niggle arises, most of us would just power through. I’m not here to judge anyone for these action or I would be the biggest hypocrite. The goal of this article is to help you recover as quickly and as efficiently as possible and come back stronger than pre injury.
First of, let’s list some basic tools of the recovery trade such as rest, elevation, compression sleeves, ice, heat, KT tape, sports cream, massage, foam rolling, stretches, Epsom soaks, rehab exercises and maybe a few more you never heard of, such as easy running, running in the opposite direction, walking, addressing nutritional gaps.
Ice vs Heat
Let’s just state the most important difference. Ice numbs, heat heals. Ice can be very beneficial if you’re in excruciating pain resulting for a tear or a fracture. View ice as a pain killer. You hear it often that ice reduces swelling but what is swelling? It’s extra blood rushing to the area of injury and with it extra nutrients. This is our body’s natural response. I don’t quite understand why we are so quick to stop this process. That’s essentially what you’re doing by icing it. Sure there will be less pain and less swelling but you’ve just delayed your healing. So, if the pain and the swelling is not too bothersome, leave it alone and let the body go through the healing process. This is where a good sports cream can really help. The cooling sensation will feel very pleasant on the injured area without interfering with the healing.
After a hard run muscles tend to tighten up which you usually feel particularly on the next day. To reduce this tightening process, soak in a hot tub with Epsom salts after your run. Gently stretch afterwards. I realize this is literally the opposite of what you hear with all the athletes talking about ice baths but this is what worked for me so many times and the healing power of heat can’t be denied. Notice, we are not talking about reducing pain but speeding up the healing process.
Strain vs Tear
Weak muscle strains or overstretches, and tight muscle tears. Icing a strained muscle can feel really good and the resulting tightening won’t interfere too much with the overall rehab process but if you ice a torn tight muscle, you’re in for a longer recovery because ice will cause further stiffness.
Strained calf muscle can benefit from KT support or calf sleeve, whereas torn calf muscle will benefit from a warm bath and a massage. Knowing whether you have a strain or a tear can really make a huge difference in proper rehab.
Steps to recovery
Many times a common mistake I see is people jumping right into exercises to rehab an injured muscle and that’s a recipe for disaster. Following the necessary phases of recovery will ensure you will heal faster and stronger. There are no shortcuts.
Let’s use a common injury example like a calf tear which resulted from a super tight calf with multiple knots. On your prior runs your body was sending you signals that not all was well by giving you little tinges from time to time. You ignored them (not judging, we’ve all done it!), and then in one fatal moment your felt (and heard!) a snap. You wince in pain, say a few choice words and at once realize that now you can’t even put your weight on that leg. Well, yes it’s torn and depending on how bad was the tear and how diligent you will be with your rehab, you’re looking at 4 weeks of no running. It sucks but now you need to shift focus to healing and that’s it. So here we go, let’s begin.
Step 1 – Rest and elevation
Don’t attempt to stretch or massage or literally anything at this point. Resting and elevating is literally the most important thing you can do at this point.
Step 2 – Gentle massage
Schedule a physical therapy session and get the calf massaged. This is the time for gentle stimulation and not anything aggressive as the muscle fibers are still being laid.
Step 3 – Light stretches
As the muscle continues healing and the therapist continues with the gentle massage, now would be an appropriate time to start gently elongating your muscles. Remember they were really tight which is was got you in this mess so massage and stretches will do you a world of good.
Step 4 – Balance exercises
Every injury causes an interruption to your overall balance and regaining it will ensure you don’t end up with secondary injury after you resume running. This is a very important step that is often missed.
Step 5 – Deep Tissue massage
The purpose of this massage is to incorporate tough scar tissue into the fold of your existing muscle fibers. Failure to do that is the number one reason why people reinjure the same spot over and over. Scar tissue is what your body lays as it heals the torn muscle. The problem with it is that it’s tough and is not laid in the same direction as your muscle fibers. Massaging it along the natural flow of the muscle will make it more pliable and will eventually become just like your existing muscles.
Step 6 – Body weight exercises
Now you’re ready for exercises. Only body weight at this point as you’re testing to see if the injured muscle can handle some pressure. Calf raises are great at this point. You can also do calf drops on a step. See how it feels. Nothing should hurt but you may feel a little discomfort still. Keep going and do these as often as possible.
Step 7 – Strength exercises with weights
Eventhough your injury resulted from super tight muscles, the new muscle fibers are weak and need to be strengthened. Start with holding dumbbells in both hands and doing calf raises. Keep on progressing until you can put a squat bar on your back and do a few sets of heavy calf raises. Once you can do those comfortably, you can attempt your first run of 1-2 miles at easy pace. If that goes well, increase it to 2-4 miles. The next time you run try a 5 mile run and then take a rest day. On your rest day continue the rehab by massaging and stretching. Just because everything is now healed, it doesn’t mean your rehab should end. Continue being cautious so you don’t retear the same spot.
Some other suggestions that I believe can be helpful.
Up your protein
As you’re healing your muscles, body needs protein to rebuild it so make sure you consume enough and go over if necessary while in rehab process.
Reduce inflammation with food
Instead of popping ibuprofens which have been proven to delay healing, learn which foods can naturally reduce inflammation and consume them to speed up your recovery. This is extremely beneficial in bursitis cases, sprains, IT band issues and many others. Some examples of foods I like to consume that would fall into this category are wild salmon, turmeric spice, blueberries, pineapples, dark chocolate, cocoa, red wine.
Walk
Not enough is being said about that. If you sit all day and then go for a hard 1 hour run, and then back to sitting, that’s not a good way to maintain your overall health and fitness. It’s particularly important to do lots of walking while you’re rehabing your injury. Going for weeks of no running to all of a sudden lots of running is going to land you back on the injury train. So walk as much as possible. One mile here, one mile there. This is just a good habit even if you’re not injured.
Change directions
Always running in the same direction can create muscle imbalances which lead to injuries so switch it up often to make sure you stay even.
Easy running
Much is said about that in terms of its benefits. Low heart rate improves endurance, helps to add miles safely, lowers risk of injury, allows you to work on your form and I’ll add more. Easy running can feel almost massage like and can be very beneficial as you recover from injuries. It’s not always a good idea to take too many days off from running even if you’re injured. There are many instances where easy running can aid your recovery and make you stronger in the process. I had a foot fracture that healed incredibly fast. Part of my rehab was running slowly. The thing with the bone is that it becomes denser (aka stronger) when you constantly pound it. Sure it may break, and it does once in a while, but when it heals you can help it heal stronger than before. To ensure that happens you need to pound it with small pressure which is what easy running does. Not running at all, in this case, would result in a weaker bone which is more likely to break again.
There are many other tools that can be used that were not mentioned here. I will continue writing about specific injury rehabs as this was intended to be a general overview for the most part.
Let’s heal fast and get back to the sport we love!