Stubbornness and The Ripple Effect of Injuries

Back in the old days, it wasn’t uncommon for athletes to train and play through injuries.  At times it was expected.  Now with million dollar contracts and every team looking for the slightest competitive edge, it’s becoming a thing of the past.

At CFA it’s no different. Our goal for our clients is lifelong fitness. To achieve this goal you need to be healthy and injury free. Injuries are only roadblocks. Don’t let stubbornness get the better of you. If you feel an injury coming on, take care of it!  The more you prolong treatment of an injury the longer it will take to get better.

Ripple Effect of Injuries

• If the injury/dysfunction happens within days: Monitoring inflammation is priority number one.

(Tip: don’t kill it with anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) right away.  Inflammation is a process for healing.  Only use if you have high amounts of acute inflammation are present.)

Recovery Protocol:
Reduce exercise load, let pain be your guide to scaling movements down.

• If Injury/dysfunction happened within weeks:  Inflammation has lessened, but muscle firing patterns have been altered from scar tissue within the muscle.

Recovery Protocol:
Airrosti treatment and corrective exercises maybe be an appropriate addition to the exercise protocol.

• If Injury/dysfunction happened within months: Inflammation is gone, but firing patterns have been altered within the muscle and now may be causing joint alterations.  Nerves might also be involved by this time.

Recovery Protocol:

Airrosti, Physical Therapy, Chiropractic techniques and corrective exercise may be needed.

• If injury/dysfunction has lasted for years: There will be no inflammation, but now recruitment of other muscles have been made to compensate for the injury/dysfunction causing dysfunction in recruited muscles. It is now harder to clearly diagnosis the original cause of injury/dysfunction.   

Recovery Protocol: ????

 

Being proactive is of the utmost importance.  Notice “Rest” is not listed as a recovery protocol.  If adhesions are present and muscles are dysfunctional, rest will not heal the injury.  Instead mobility will be compromised due to stiffness and inactivity causing even a longer road to recovery.

 

That is the price of being stubborn.

-Aaron Davis 

Maria L. Urso and Michael N. Sawka

Inflammation: sustaining the balance to optimize recovery of skeletal muscle, connective tissue, and exertional injuries

J Appl Physiol September 15, 2013 115:877-878; published ahead of print May 16, 2013, doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00512.2013