Many of us have certainly injured ourselves at some point during sport. Whether it's twisting a knee playing football, overstretching your back playing basketball or straining a muscle during weight training.
Usually the pain is worse in the beginning and you worry about how long it will take until you can do your beloved sport again. After the first or second week, you already feel much better and are ready to take up your sport again. But this is where the biggest risk of re-injury lies.
If the injury has not healed completely, there is a risk that the injury will recur. If you resume exercise before your injury has healed, you run the risk of chronic problems. If you start training again too soon, you also run the risk of injuring other parts of your body.
For example, if you are a footballer and you have injured your left knee, you tend to use your right knee more than your left when running or tackling, and risk injuring your right knee as well.
In general, the healing process is the same for most injuries. In the primary injury, traction or a tear occurs and the microfibres are damaged. Inflammatory factors begin to colonise the area and heal. This is the process your body has to go through before a comeback.
There are three points you should keep in mind during your rehabilitation.
Time
As in most cases, time is of the essence when it comes to an injury. As described earlier, starting too early carries risks. However, giving the injury time does not mean just lying around lazily and doing nothing. Depending on the injury, it may be a good idea to cool the injury regularly or use certain ointments. Maybe you can also see a physiotherapist.
Painless
A prerequisite for resuming your sport after an injury is that your freedom of movement is not restricted by pain. If you are still in pain while exercising, you are not ready yet.
No overexertion
As soon as you no longer feel pain in your sport, you have not yet completely overcome the injury. Now it is time to slowly bring the intensity back to the pre-injury level. In the beginning, it makes sense to halve the activity level before the injury and then slowly increase it.
If you stay on this course, you will slowly but surely recover from your injury and come back stronger.
