Injuries of any type can prevent you from carrying out physical activities linked to your day-to-day life. Whether you talk about sports injuries such as shoulder dislocations, hamstring injuries, groin pull, ACL injuries, concussions or injuries that stem from activities like bending and twisting such as muscle strains and ligament sprains, they can deteriorate your quality of life, if you fail to seek quick medical attention.
Injuries of any type can prevent you from carrying out physical activities linked to your day-to-day life. Whether you talk about sports injuries such as shoulder dislocations, hamstring injuries, groin pull, ACL injuries, concussions or injuries that stem from activities like bending and twisting such as muscle strains and ligament sprains, they can deteriorate your quality of life, if you fail to seek quick medical attention.
For a speedy recovery from an injury, you have to act responsibly. You can’t afford to take it lightly and if you do that you will have a tough time getting back to your normal life. You not only have to take proactive steps to heal your injury but also need a lot of patience.
Having an understanding that you can’t recover from your injury overnight, can play a vital role in reducing your frustration level. However, having patience doesn’t mean that you can take your treatment lightly.
Whether you are a professional footballer, basketball player, cyclist, gymnast, boxer, and runner or a weekend sports enthusiast, you need to take quick treatment to recover from sports injuries. If you fail to treat an injury at the right time, it can lead to various other health problems later on.
So, if you are someone who is unable to carry out physical activities due to an injury, here is how you can recover from it quickly.
Give Your Body Rest
If your injury is not that severe, then you will recover from it automatically if you take a couple of days rest. And when we talk about taking rest, it means you shouldn’t put stress on the injured part.
For example, if you have injured your knee, then it’s better to avoid climbing up and down the stairs because that can put a lot of stress on your knee, which can worsen your injury further. Similarly, if you have injured your back, then it’s better to avoid bending and twisting for a couple of days. When you give that much-needed rest to your body, it continues to heal naturally.
Consult a Physical Therapist
Consulting a physical therapist can play a crucial role in reducing your recovery period. The reason you should see them is that they are committed to your recovery. When you consult a physical therapist, they devote sufficient time to understand your problem. Yes, they do not arrive at conclusions quickly.
What they do is, they spend enough time with their patients to understand their signs and symptoms so that they can discover the root cause of the problem. And once they identify the actual source of the pain or the exact location of the injury, they then design a unique care plan to address the problem.
According to FYZICAL Therapy & Balance Centers, “The key to dealing with sports injuries is to get targeted treatment as soon as possible.”
It further says that “A physical therapist is well-qualified to examine your injury, weight the factors involved, and administer treatment that is most likely to help you recover quickly and get back in the game.”
Physical therapists use different techniques to strengthen the natural ability of your body to heal injuries. For example, they use manual therapy, joint mobilization & manipulation, electronic simulation, dry needling, Kinesio Taping, and therapeutic exercise, etc., to accelerate your recovery process.
Physical therapy techniques help in increasing circulation and reduce pain and swelling, which eventually speed up the healing process.
Increased circulation plays an essential role in providing nutrition to injured tissues, which helps them cure fast.
Consume Healthy Foods
Include foods rich in protein, vitamins, fiber, zinc, omega-3 fatty acids, and creatine, etc., in your diet to speed up your recovery process. Protein-rich foods such as fish, chicken, eggs, oats, almonds, cheese, yogurt, and milk, etc., prevent the loss of muscle mass. These foods are also essential for stopping inflammation from worsening.
Apart from increasing the intake of protein-rich foods, you should also consume fiber-rich foods such as fruits and vegetables. Fruits that are the rich source of fiber include mango, bananas, apples, and berries. And veggies that are a good source of fiber include beans, legumes, carrot, and cabbage, etc.
Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids also play a vital role in recovering from injuries. So make sure that you increase the intake of fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel, and sardine, etc., in your diet. Apart from that, you should also eat foods such as soybeans, chia seeds, and walnuts, etc., to enhance the consumption of omega-3 fatty acids.
Sleep At The Right Time
Getting a good night’s sleep is highly essential to maintain a healthy body. You can’t wake up fresh in the morning if you go to bed too late in the night.
But even after knowing that it is crucial to stay fit, most people underestimate the significance of proper sleep in living a healthy life. So, if you are also someone who doesn’t sleep for 7 to 8 hours a day, then you need to change your habit.
People with injuries can benefit a lot from having a night of proper sleep. It will provide the rest to their body, and speed up their recovery process.
Exercise Regularly
After giving a couple of days rest to your body, you should then get back to your workouts. However, make sure that you avoid high-intensity exercises until your pain disappears. If you put too much pressure on the injured part, you will end up worsening your injury. You can go for short walks or carry out relaxing stretching exercises to keep your body active.
If you consider the above tips, you will get back to your normal life very soon.
