Ignore Off-Season Rehab at Your Peril!
OK.......So here we are at the end of the winter sports season and it is time to reflect after a long and arduous season.
HOW DID YOUR BODY HOLD UP?
HOW MANY WEEKS WERE YOU FORCED TO MISS?
Many of the seeds for an injury that will occur next season are planted right NOW! Most players do not understand this and come the middle of the next season or just before finals they will be the ones expecting miracles from their Physio.
The better approach is to address your issues now, work on them hard over the summer, and hit the season well and truly rehabilitated.
Let us use a little story of a simple hamstring strain to demonstrate what happens when your choose the RIGHT path instead of the LAZY one:
THE TYPICAL LAZY APPROACH
A football player suffers a hamstring strain in the middle of this year, but its a club function night so forget the ICE, its party time. He drops in to see our physio a couple of times but ignores our recommendations and comes back a week earlier than he should have, but he's feeling OK. He lacks the speed he had prior to injury and struggles for form in the next month.
By now the rehab exercises prescribed by the physio have been well and truly forgotten and the foam roller use has dropped off completely. Finals are around the corner though and now the ice bath is getting pulled back out as a desperate measure to make the legs feel better. Nope, its not working. Our physio gets another call and the player throws his hands in the air are preaches he has done everything right. We try our best but the injury is killing any performance, and his team lose the grand final. Season over!
Swaps the boots for the thongs, hang at the beach all summer, drink bucket loads of alcohol, and rocks up at training after Christmas, expecting everything to be healed up and ready to go. Hamstring is feeling good. No pain so it must be all good, right??
All goes well during pre-season despite some episodes of hammy tightness and round 1 is approaching. First quarter of the first game, BANG! Hammy goes again. Our physio gets another visit and the player can't believe his luck, throws his hands in the air again and says 'Why me!!?'.
THE PRO-ACTIVE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH
A football players suffers a hamstring strain in the middle of this year, sets the alarm every 2 hours through the night to ICE and keeps the swelling down. He visits our physio first thing on Monday for assessment, sticks to the rehab plan religiously, and sees us on a regular basis for treatment and guidance. He takes the extra week to return, making sure the leg is strong enough. He makes a successful comeback and finds the ball just like he did prior to injury.
He continues the rehab plan as a preventative measure right through the year and continues to receive regular massage treatments despite the injury not giving him any trouble. Finals arrive and he is in peak condition. Racks it up in the final series, best on in the 'Granny', and celebrates a flag with the boys.
A couple of weeks to rest up and then a review with the Physio to assess the body and rejig the plan. Training hasn't officially started but rehab continues anyway. He stars during the preseason and hits round one, strong, fit, and READY!
Have a serious think about which one of these stories sounds like you.
If its the first one, CALL US NOW! (03) 5174 7250
Devon Soutar - Physio | Managing Director @ ABSOLUTE