Category: Sports Training Subcategory: General Sports Training

How To Treat Sports Injuries

Step-by-step Instructions

Here is what you need to do...

Step 1

After you injury occurs it is important to get off the injured body part. If you rolled you ankle, sit down and get your weight off of it. If you hurt you shoulder, don't use it for a while. The basic treatment is the RICE principle which the first step is Rest.

Step 2

The Second step is to Ice. Proper icing (or cryotherapy) is extremely helpful in reducing the amount of swelling that you will get and also to decrease the pain associated with the injury. Rule of thumb is to ice for 20 minutes every hour (20 min on, 40 min off) for recent injuries and then after a couple days you can do 20 min every 2-3 hours.

Step 3

Rule of thumb is to ice for 20 minutes every hour (20 min on, 40 min off) for recent injuries and then after a couple days you can do 20 min every 2-3 hours.

Step 4

If you are a person that has a lot of adipose tissue (fat) then you will want to leave the ice on for longer periods of time. Slightly larger people will want to keep the ice on for 40 min (40 on, 60 off) and extremely large people will want to keep it on for 60 min (60 on, 60 off). Remember that this is just referring to people with excess fat and not people with larger muscles.

Step 5

The next step is Compression. Using an ACE bandage, start a tight wrap distal (away from your abdomen) to the injury sight and the wrap it getting looser as you go to push the swelling towards you heart. For example, if you have an ankle injury, start tight around the toes and slowly loosen the bandage as you wrap it around your ankle and up the calf.

Step 6

Once you have completed the wrap, you want to make sure that you are not cutting off circulation to the extremity, so you will want to check capillary refill in your toenail or fingernail. What you want to do is squeeze the nail so it turns white, then let it go. The red coloration should come back under the nail within 1-3 seconds. If it takes longer than that, you need to try the wrap again starting a little looser.

Step 7

The last step is Elevation. Elevating the injured limb above the heart assists in removing swelling from the injured area and allows for faster healing times.

Step 8

Using all 4 steps in conjunction will keep your injury from getting worse than it already is.

Step 9

Rule of thumb, after 2-3 days you should start to see improvement, such as less pain to walk on an injured ankle. If you don't start to see improvements within this window, please consult your doctor. A general family doctor is ok, but an orthopedic doctor would be your best option.

Special Attention

Difficulties people often experience or parts that need special attention to do it right.

The last and most important thing, don't try going back to do 100% activity until you are 100% pain free. Pain means the body is fixing something, and if your still in pain you are more likely to injure yourself again.