The Hardest Thing You’ll Ever Have to Do After an Injury – Let It Heal

Relax and let your injury heal. Your body will thank you for it!

Many of the clients who come to see Dr. Lathrop are passionate athletes. They range from rough-and-tumble high school athletes to weekend warriors and even competitive athletes. What they all have in common is that they always, always want to get back on the field as soon as possible after an injury. For too long, our culture has operated on a “shake it off” mentality that encourages athletes to push through pain and keep playing. Pain is the body’s way of telling you that it is injured. Playing through the pain may seem courageous in the moment, but it can actually hurt your long-term prospects as an athlete!

Pain Often Means Injury

An injury like a twisted ankle or torn ligament changes the body on a cellular level. The swelling, inflammation, and drumming pain you feel is your body’s way of telling you to stop using that area of the body ASAP! The body needs time to recover, and the worst thing you can do is to keep running on that swollen ankle or otherwise ignoring the signals that your body is giving you.

This may seem obvious, but Dr. Lathrop constantly has to convince and cajole his athlete clients to take a break from their activity. How long? Until the injury is completely healed.

Letting the Injury Heal

One of the biggest mistakes athletes make is resting only long enough so that the worst of the pain of an injury passes and then taking the field again. Far too often, the injury itself is not entirely healed. Even though the pain may be much less, your body is still damaged, and there is just no way your injury can totally heal if you are running, jumping, and diving too soon afterwards.

It can be frustrating to take a month or even six months off in order to let an injury totally heal. Many athletes worry that they will lose the skills and gains they worked so hard to build, while others may have to skip important competitions or drop out of their team sports temporarily. However, the alternative is much worse. If you go back to your sport too early, your injury will never heal. You’ll face the prospect of playing in constant low grade pain that may grow and grow as the unhealed injury spreads. You won’t make many improvements to your game that way!

Something else to consider is that you are much more likely to reinjure yourself seriously if you already have an existing injury. For example, if a twisted ankle is not fully healed, it is highly likely that you’ll twist it again, and the new injury will probably be even worse and take longer to heal than the original.

In other words, even if it means another few months on the sidelines, let your injury heal all the way! You can use this time to do some off season training that won’t stress your injury, such as cycling or swimming.

How to Know When Your Injury Is Healed

Sometimes it can be hard to know when an injury is entirely healed. If you feel any sort of pain at the injury site when you take up your sport again, that’s a sure sign that it is not healed. You can also use the SCENAR to follow the progress of your healing. The SCENAR can actually read your galvanic skin response (biochemical signals the skin releases) and give you a readout that indicates the level of your injury. If you place the electrodes on the skin at the injury site and the reading comes back around 65, then the injury is serious. A reading of around 45 means the injury is healing. Once you get a reading of around 30 at the injury site, that means the SCENAR is no longer detecting any injury. You should be good to take the field again.

Don’t own a SCENAR? If you are a serious athlete or passionate weekend warrior, consider purchasing a SCENAR or scheduling a treatment with a nearby expert. 

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How Cross-Training Can Help You Prevent Injuries and Chronic Pain

Yoga, Pilates, and stretching are all great cross-training options. Photo via Visual hunt 

There’s a reason why every sport has its own group of common injuries. Tennis elbow and shoulder injuries are rife in tennis and golf. Plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinitis, and shin splints take center stage in the world of running. Whenever you put specific areas of your body under a constant level of strain, you invite injuries. Of course, that doesn’t mean you should give up your beloved sport and spend your days binging on Netflix. Instead, incorporate cross-training into your workout routine.

Cross-training simply means adding different exercises and activities into your workout routine that take the emphasis off of the joints and muscles you use most in your primary activity. Are you a runner who spends your days putting constant pressure on your feet, ankles, knees, and hips? A great cross-training option is to add two days of cycling, swimming, or weight training into your workout routine.

How Cross-Training Helps Prevent Injuries

Years of regularly practicing a single sport or activity can wear down the primary joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones that you use in your sport. Additionally, you may ignore stabilizer muscles that are critical to helping you prevent injuries.  

Cross-training allows to take the pressure off overused muscle groups my introducing new methods of training, and also gives you the chance to strengthen stabilizer muscles. Many athletes cross-train by lifting weights and working on improving core strength, a key stabilizer system.

Cross-Training Can Help You Break out of Plateaus

Cross-training can also make you a better athlete! Putting your body through a different training regimen will force it to adapt by getting stronger in different areas. For example, strengthening your core may give you better balance and more overall strength. Perhaps swimming increases your cardiovascular endurance and strengthens different muscles in your shoulder. A lot of athletes discover that adding cross-training to their fitness routine two days a week can pay big dividends out of the field.

While cross-training can help you prevent future overuse injuries, it can’t help heal old and nagging injuries. For that you need to use the SCENAR. Only the SCENAR uses electrical pulses to reprogram your cells to begin healing again. While it works best on new injuries, it CAN heal most old injuries too, even if you’ve had them for years. You don’t have to give up on your favorite sport or physical activity when you use the SCENAR.

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Is Your Chronic Neck Pain Really Healed?

If neck pain continually flairs up, then your neck injury isn't healed! Photo via Visualhunt 

Are you someone who experiences chronic neck pain “flair-ups”? It’s kind of like the world’s least exciting merry-go-round. One day you wake up and you can barely turn your head. Maybe you even experience shooting pain down your arm or spine. For the next few days you are miserable until the pain eventually fades away. You are off the merry-go-round of neck pain…but for how long?

Neck Pain Flair-ups Mean that You are Still Injured!

Many people deal with on and off with neck pain for years! Sometimes it started with a bad fall, a sports injury, or whiplash in a car accident. Whatever the cause, many of these people believe that when the pain is gone the injury is healed…except the pain keeps coming back!

If the pain continually returns, that means the original injury has never fully healed. It is like a ticking time bomb waiting for you to sleep in the wrong position for a night or to turn your head too swiftly. Then, pow, the pain is back again, and you can barely turn your head.

Neck Pain Flair-ups Need to be Treated

Don’t ignore neck plain flair-ups. They tell you that your original neck injury is not completely healed. Even if the pain goes away each time, chances are high that it will come back again and again and again. Instead of waiting for the bomb to go off, work to heal the injury. This is the type of situation where the SCENAR is a great option. The SCENAR helps your cells re-start the healing process even when an injury is months or even years old. It can heal the original injury that is causing your flair-ups.

Don’t put up with chronic neck pain or live with the uncertainty that another flair-up might be right around the corner! 

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Keep safety in mind playing summer sports

Summer generally means more time being outdoors, and playing sports outdoors.  Many people we know are also gearing up for fall races.  With all the increased activity comes an increased risk for injury.  Many sports injuries are from overuse or acute trauma.

You are probably already seeing it - people around you with some of the common summer sports injuries:

• runner's knee
• tennis elbow
• tendonitis
• neck and shoulder pain
• back injuries
• rolled ankles

BE PROACTIVE!  Take time to take care and be safe.  You only have one body, treat it with care.  Here are the tips you know and yet might just need to see again:

•  Warm my your body and as a part of that learn the best ways to warm up for your particular sport, it isn't a one size fits all!
• Get the proper equipment, and especially shoes for your sport and level of activity
• Know your limits and mind them
• Hydrate!  Drink plenty of water.  Your tissues should be like a full sponge and not a dried out one on the kitchen sink
• Allow your body time to recover after activity
• Seek expert attention when needed

HOME SCENAR DEVICES:  In addition, a number of our clients have the RITM SCENAR Sport D at home and use it regularly as a part of being active.  Ask us if you are interested in learning more.  619-501-3752.  Ask for Kay or Jack.

Watch and share this brief video where Julie shares what she is now able to do because of SCENAR (things she couldn't 3 years ago!).  This could be just the solution you or someone you love needs.

EnJOY these beautiful summer days!

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