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WEEK 4/5 HOMEWORK (10/17-10/24)

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PROPER INJURY TREATMENT

Most athletic injuries, especially in soccer, are going to be strained muscles or knee/ankle soreness.  We’ve already had a couple athletes talk about their knees and ankles bugging them when they are running.  It’s extremely important that we take proper care of these injuries so we can get back on the field and continue to get better!

For 99% of injuries, there’s a very simple process to follow: RICE

RICE stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation

REST is the most important thing for an athlete with an injury.  Most small pains and aches will heal by themselves with just a couple days of rest.  It’s very important that athletes don’t rush themselves back from injury, or it will only take longer to heal.  Sprained ankles and knees can sometimes take a couple weeks of rest to heal.  The general rule on amount of rest is that you should continue to rest your injury at least 1 extra day after the pain goes away.

ICE is a miracle worker.  When our body is injured, it initially sends extra blood to the affected area.  This extra blood results in swelling (also called inflammation), especially in knees and ankles, and can delay healing.  Most pain that you feel in your joints is due to the pressure of this swelling, so we use ice to help reduce the swelling.  Even in muscle strains, ice helps to reduce the inflammation and help speed up the healing process.  After injuries, it is extremely important that athletes ice for the first 2 days.  You should ice for about 15-20 minutes at a time, 4-8 times a day depending on how severe the injury.  Don’t ice for longer than 30 minutes.  Make sure you allow your leg to thaw out and warm up before your next icing session.

COMPRESSION is when we wrap our injury to keep it from swelling more.  The best way to do this is to get an ACE bandage and wrap it tight around the injured area.  Do not wrap too tight!  If you feel the area pulsing, it is too tight.  There are also soft braces and sleeves that can be worn when playing to compress the area and provide extra support.

ELEVATION is another great way to reduce swelling for an injury.  The general rule is to elevate the injured body part above the level of your heart so that the blood will flow away from the injury.  Since most injuries in soccer players will be lower body injuries, elevate your leg on a pillow or 2 when you sleep or sit down. 

Once you have healed, there’s one last step to make sure you are ready to return to action.  You need to make sure that for any joint injuries (knee, ankle, hip), you do some light strengthening exercises to help build the muscles around the joint to protect them.   Calf raises for ankles, squats for knees and hips, and some light running/jumping should do the trick.  For muscle strains, it’s very important to warm-up the injured muscle and stretch (but not overstretch!) until your full range of motion returns.

Reading Questions:

1. Explain how to treat a pulled hamstring.

2. What does RICE stand for?

3. How long should you ice for at a time?

4. How high should you elevate your injured body part?

5. Generally, how long should you rest your injury?