Our Top Tips for Treating Sports Injuries
You don’t have to be an elite athlete to suffer from a painful sports injury. Whatever level of sport you partake in, your body is undoubtedly going to feel repercussions. Whether it’s a serious accident or something as simple as overuse, sports injuries can take a massive toll on your health. There are, however, some effective ways to treat an injury. Continue reading as we dive into the key initial treatments that are essential to caring for an unexpected sports injury, as well as why follow-up treatments like sports osteopathy could get you back on the field sooner than ever.
This blog explores how regular osteopathy treatment can be used to recover from sports injuries and prevent future damage. For personalised advice and to book an appointment, reach out to The Whole Body Clinic today!
Common Sports Injuries
Injury is an experience that every athlete will undoubtedly go through time and time again. Sometimes, it can be a more serious ordeal, with a severe accident taking place while competing or a chronic issue becoming an ongoing hurdle. For most people, though, the sports injuries they’ll experience are incredibly common. Most people visiting clinics for post-injury care will come in with complaints of conditions such as:
- Tennis/Golfers Elbow
- Sprains
- Ankle or knee injuries
- Tears to the ACL
- Rotator cuff pain
- Groin strains
- Shin splints
- Muscle or ligament damage
- Hamstring sprains
What to do After a Sports Injury?
Once you find yourself injured, that immediate period after the incident is extremely important. Taking the appropriate care can ensure that your injury doesn’t escalate into something even more severe, and limits the risk of it becoming a chronic pain for you to manage for the rest of your life. To protect your body, there are a few essential steps to follow in the aftermath of an injury.
Rest
Don’t add any more stress to your injury! Keep the area supported, and do your best to avoid using it for around 2-3 days.
Ice
Ice can work wonders to help care for an injury and reduce pain. Applying ice to the injured area is an essential part of immediate treatment, and we recommend holding ice to areas of pain for 20 minutes every two hours for the first couple of days.
Compression
Compressing injuries is one of the easiest treatment methods, and it’s consistently effective. The simplest way to go about compression is to apply a firm elastic bandage over the injury, covering above and below the area of pain to ensure full coverage.
Elevation
Those couple of days immediately after your injury should be spent resting, and off your feet. Whenever you can be sat or laying down, it’s best to keep your injury elevated. In order to properly do so, it’s best to raise the injured area above the level of your heart.
Professional Advice
As soon as you can, you should be going to see a healthcare provider. Finding out exactly what happened and how you need to appropriately recover is essential to preventing further damage.
Follow Up Treatment
Recovering from a sports injury can be a difficult, long process. But, there are several treatment options available to help you recover and get back to competing as soon as possible – and for many athletes, the key to recovery is osteopathic care. An osteopath is there to help find the perfect treatment plan for you, guiding you every step of the way as they help you get back to what you love.
Osteopathic treatment for sports injuries may include a wide variety of therapies and exercises. Some examples of what a typical osteopathy session could look like for an injured athlete include:
- Soft tissue massage
- Shockwave therapy
- Dry needling
- Personalised exercise plans
- Joint manipulation
Call Today to Book Your Osteopathy Appointment
Taking care of your body goes beyond knowing how to treat an injury. If you’re an athlete, understanding the limits of your body and knowing how to avoid injuries as a result of overuse is absolutely vital. Working with an osteo won’t just get you back on your feet, but will help you to find the routines and habits that are going to give you a long life of safe athleticism.
If you need osteopathic therapy to help get your health back on track after an injury, the friendly team down at the Whole Body Clinic is ready to help out. Contact us today to chat with a team member and get your next appointment scheduled.