Sports injury recovery methods

Intervention is layered according to the injury stage, and the plan is customized based on the individual's injury degree, sports foundation, and recovery goals. There is no "fastest" or "best" standard path, only the most adaptable option.

To be honest, I had no real idea of this conclusion until I stepped on my opponent's foot while playing in an amateur basketball league last year, causing a second-degree injury to the anterior talofibular ligament. I took the MRI report to three practitioners with different backgrounds, and the plan they gave me almost confused me: Department of Orthopedics at a public hospital. I was asked to wear a brace and lie down for three weeks before being rechecked. The team's rehabilitator asked me to start doing ankle isometric contractions 48 hours later. The coach of the CrossFit gym I frequented even patted his chest and said that he started jumping with light weights and heavy weights three days after the same injury, and returned to the gym to practice within a week.

It was only later that I realized that the essence of the difference in plans is that the applicable conditions are different. The orthopedic surgeon provides the most reliable general plan, which is suitable for ordinary people who have no foundation in exercise and no rehabilitation guidance. What they are afraid of is aggravating ligament tears by moving around. ； The rehabilitation specialist’s plan was based on the premise that I had no indication for surgery and had professional guidance so that I would not practice blindly. ； The experience of a CrossFit coach is more suitable for his own physical condition of sufficient muscle mass and good joint stability. If an ordinary person copies it, there is a high probability of secondary injury.

Here we have to mention the ever-controversial principle of acute phase treatment: the RICE principle (rest, ice, compression, elevation) that everyone used to default to has been replaced by the POLICE principle (protection, appropriate weight-bearing, ice, compression, elevation) in recent years. In fact, there is no one who eliminates who. If you have a fracture or a third-degree complete tear of the ligament and need surgery, it is absolutely right to press RICE and brake first and don’t move blindly. ； However, if it is just an ordinary soft tissue sprain and no structural damage, gradually increasing light weight bearing after 48 hours can indeed reduce swelling by about 30% faster than lying completely flat. My own experience was to put ice on my foot and lift it for the first 48 hours. On the third day, I started to slowly rock on a soft elastic ball. After a week, I took off the brace and could walk slowly. It was a much better experience than four years ago when I had to lie hard on my sprained foot for two weeks and finally had joint adhesions and had to stretch my leg.

When the swelling has almost subsided and the pain is almost gone without moving, it enters the sub-acute stage where it is most likely to be pitted. I used to know a girl who ran a marathon. She suffered from iliotibial band syndrome. She rested when it hurt. She rested until it stopped hurting to walk and immediately went to run 10 kilometers. As a result, it was delayed for more than three months. She even gave up the race in the Northern Marathon that year. Later, when she went to a rehabilitation specialist for an evaluation, she found out that her gluteus medius strength had dropped by 20% just from resting and not practicing. When she ran, she still had to compensate on the outside of her knees, which meant she was resting in vain. Regarding the training ideas at this stage, the differences in different fields are not small: the traditional rehabilitation circle emphasizes "activities within a pain-free range". As long as the movement hurts, stop immediately, which is enough to meet the needs of ordinary people to resume daily activities. ； However, the rehabilitation concept for strength sports such as powerlifting and weightlifting will be more inclined to "progressive resistance to break through the slight pain threshold." Especially for chronic tendinopathy such as Achilles tendinitis and tennis elbow, many rehabilitation practitioners will directly ask you to do eccentric training to overcome the slight pain. After all, if you want to return to high-intensity competitive sports, it is impossible to return to your previous sports performance without any pain.

Many people think that “it’s fine if it doesn’t hurt.” This is really a big mistake. Last year, there was a young man in our league who had a sprained foot. After two weeks of rest, he felt no pain when walking. He secretly went on the court without telling the team doctor. He played for ten minutes while grabbing rebounds and landed on the sprained leg again. It was still in the same position. Later, it was found that the magnetic ligament had become loose. It took him half a year to touch the ball. In fact, in order to return to specialized sports, you must pass at least a few invisible hurdles: there is no obvious difference between the two sides in joint mobility, the unilateral strength difference does not exceed 10%, and there is no discomfort in the specialized movement test-for example, you must be able to continuously change directions when playing basketball and jump on one foot without shaking, and you must be able to run 3 kilometers continuously without feeling discomfort in your knees. If you go back after passing these hurdles, the probability of secondary injury can be reduced by more than 80%.

Let me talk about some practical experience I have accumulated over the past few years. It may not be applicable to everyone, but anyone who has stepped into the trap will understand: Don’t take painkillers blindly. Unless the pain makes you unable to sleep at night, the pain itself is an alarm from the body. If you take painkillers and practice hard, by the time you find something wrong, the injury has worsened.； Don’t be greedy for too much rehabilitation training. For example, strength training around the ankle. 10 minutes a day is enough at the beginning. If you practice too much, it will cause swelling and slow down the progress. ； Don't believe in the nonsense of "one-time bone setting and reduction" and "three days of application of medicine to heal". Soft tissue repair has an objective cycle. Second-degree ligament strain will take at least 3-6 weeks to grow strong enough. No matter how urgent it is, you can't skip this process.

To put it bluntly, sports injury recovery is actually a process of dialogue with your own body. Don’t be anxious when you see others go back to exercise in three days, and don’t feel that you will never be able to return to your previous state after being injured. I have a friend who has had an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. He has been practicing according to the rehabilitation plan for a year, and he ran a half-marathon and still managed a PB of 3 minutes. After all, everyone's physical foundation is different, and their recovery goals are also different. Finding the right rhythm that suits you is better than anything else.