Maximising Your Recovery: Key Factors for Successful Injury Rehabilitation

Maximising Your Recovery: Key Factors for Successful Injury Rehabilitation

At The Move Doctor, we know how important it is to get back to doing what you love after an injury. Whether you're an athlete, an active professional, or simply someone managing daily tasks, a tailored rehabilitation plan can make all the difference in ensuring a smooth and full recovery. In this post, we’ll explore some critical factors that play a key role in the successful recovery of an injury.

1. Early Intervention

Time is of the essence when it comes to injury management. The sooner you seek help and get an assessment, the better your chances of preventing the injury from worsening and developing chronic pain or other long-term complications. Early intervention helps reduce inflammation, manage pain, and prevent further damage to the affected area.

Take Action: Don’t wait! Book an appointment with us today for a personalised assessment and treatment plan.

2. Consistency is Key

Recovery takes time, and sticking to your sessions and rehab is essential for the best results. Even if you’re feeling better after a few sessions, this is the most important part of the rehab process, as sometimes it is easy to think you no longer need to do the exercises as you're feeling better, but this is where we can really kick on and completing your treatment plan ensures that the injury is fully healed and reduces the risk of re-injury. Skipping sessions or not following through with at-home exercises can slow down your progress.

3. Managing The Pain

When it comes to pain it is important to remember that;

  • Pain is multifactoral and complex
  • There are many factors that can influence and effect pain
  • Pain doesn’t always equal damage and damage does not always equal pain

How To Measure Pain

  • It’s important to be aware that INCREASED pain during training is common & a normal part of rehab As long as pain is around 3-4 out of 10 on the scale below, we are happy with it
  • If your pain is around 5-6 then it would be wise to monitor your sets & reps and think about decreasing them ever so slightly to find comfortable ranges
  • Any pain from 7 or above, we would advise to stop the current exercise or decrease the difficulty of it as much as possible

4. The Rehab Rollercoaster

There will be days where you feel great and also days where you feel less good, but it’s all a part of the healing process. There are ups and downs and its important to remember this on those days where you may feel disheartened, but this is where the important of consistency comes in, keep looking for those small wins, keep finding that 1% better each day or rehab session and they all add up in the long run!

5. Helpful Tips

Things to consider;

  • Education: Having an understanding of your pain helps to provide an explanation, alleviate fears and provide you with a sense of control as you pursue a treatment plan.
  • Corrective exercise: Assigned appropriate corrective exercises to address tight muscles and to promote the strength, mobility, stability, plyometric force absoprtion to areas that may be inhibited or weak, which can facilitate pain-free movement.
  • Aerobic exercise: Getting just 20 minutes of aerobic exercise per day (with a goal of elevating your resting heart rate by 20 beats per minute) can significantly reduce your pain.
  • Stress management: Persistent activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis occurs with persistent high stress levels; and when this happens, tissue healing is impaired and sensitivity of tissues is increased.
  • Breathing: Not only does deep breathing help to move blood and deliver more oxygen to your tissues, it can also lessen the threats of any incoming stimuli to your nervous system, leading to a calmer state.
  • Sleep: We know that our bodies need sleep to heal, but our nervous system absolutely requires sleep in order to function appropriately. If you are sleep deprived, you will wake up with a bucket that is fuller than it ought to be! Focus on not just the quantity of sleep as much as they can, but also the quality. Establishing a night-time regimen that helps to down-regulate the nervous system is absolutely essential to falling asleep and staying asleep.
  • Nutrition: Nutrient deficiencies can impair healing, perpetuate muscle spasms and can also affect the way our nervous system functions. Furthermore, eating inflammatory foods leads to additional nerve stimulation, which can perpetuate the pain response.
  • Hydration: Studies have shown that achieving appropriate electrolyte balance and hydration status is beneficial in reducing muscle tension and trigger points, which can help to control pain.
  • Ensure adequate social support: Research has shown that having psychological support and social connections are correlated with improved outcomes when it comes to pain, especially chronic pain. That’s no surprise – pain can be very draining; having someone to talk to about your pain can help you cope and deal with negative emotions associated with your pain experience.

 

 

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