Although any type of injury can make life more difficult, sports injuries are often some of the worst. Not only can they hinder you from doing everyday activities, like walking the dog or taking out the garbage, but they can also keep you from the sport that you love. This makes healing them as beneficial to your mental wellbeing as it is to your physical health. What are the best remedies to consider?
If you are considering massage therapy to deal with your sports-related injury, a sports massage can be very advantageous. Not only does it help your muscles relax and release, which ultimately helps them heal, but it also gets the toxins out of them, reducing your level of soreness and making you feel better as a result. Just make sure the massage therapist is aware of the injury so that he or she can tend to the affected area effectively.
Another therapeutic remedy to consider if you have a sports injury is physiotherapy. Certain exercises and stretches can help you heal at a faster rate, which makes learning these movements critical to getting you back in the game. Plus, physiotherapists can also show you what you can do to strengthen key areas of your body based on your specific sport, potentially preventing future issues.
If your sports injury is rather mild and not requiring any medical treatment, the NHS recommends following PRICE therapy. PRICE is an acronym for:
- Protection (stabilizing the affected area to prevent further issues or damage)
- Rest (giving the area adequate time to heal so that you don’t injure it further)
- Ice (to reduce swelling and minimize pain)
- Compression (also to reduce swelling, as well as keep the injury from worsening)
- Elevation (another way to reduce the swelling and make the area feel better)
By following this basic advice, most strains and sprains (the most common types of sports injuries) can often heal on their own.