7 WAYS to RECOVER from INJURIES FAST

Former athletes, particularly those who competed, reported that pre-existing injuries bothered them long after retiring. In comparison, two out of every ten retired players in non-contact sports are said to be more likely to experiencing long-term problems as a result of an injury. Today we'll be talking about two of the most basic aspects of recovery for athletes and how to do it as fast as possible to get you back to doing the sport you love and watch till the end of the video I'll be sharing some extra tips you can try to get you back to filling your best as an athlete. My name is Sarah Jeffries. I'm a registered nurse with a Master's of Science in Nursing and experience in emergency room education and sleep therapy. So what do we mean by recovery? Recovery at its most basic form means a return to normal state of physical health or performance and when you think about recovery in terms of sports then you'd be talking about regaining pain-free mobility. Now something as simple as a shin splint could end in surgery if you don't let it recover. So it's really important to pay attention to your body. And two of the most basic aspects of recovery you'll have to work on are the amount of sleep you get, managing your workload in terms of training. Now these two things you're already doing pre-injury and the only difference now is that you'll need to optimize them in a way that accommodates your injury and speeds up your recovery. If done right, these two elements will contribute to approximately 90% of your rehabilitation. So let's talk about how to optimize these elements correctly. Number one is getting enough sleep. There's nothing that diet, vitamins or performance enhancing medicines or other factors can compensate for poor sleep. What I'm trying to say is good sleep is more important than all of that stuff. Your muscles get relaxed when you sleep and this relaxation relieves the tension in your muscles and can help you feel better. But more importantly, sleep is scientifically proven to be the single most beneficial thing our bodies can do to heal Recovery, endurance and mental ability are impacted when you don't get the right amount of sleep. When you sleep well, your body receives the time it needs to repair itself, providing you with the energy you require for the following day. It's also essential for muscle development, healing and the all-important muscle building growth hormone, which is released during deep sleep. Now just to reiterate how important sleep is, after a sleepless night you're more likely to experience muscle soreness, muscle stiffness and in severe cases develop chronic pain. Chronic means a long period of time. Now the next factor to think about is balancing your workouts. It's hard to find the balance between training and also recovering from your injury. If you're still putting in the same amount of work as you did pre-injury, this is obviously going to harm your recovery, regardless of what recovery tactics you're using. I understand there's a specific amount of training that you need as an athlete to continue to see results, so it's about finding that balance of stimulating your muscles enough but also giving your body a chance to recover. So the right amount of training will depend on the following factors, the kind of workouts you do, your injury history, how advanced you are as an athlete, how well you're balancing your workload capacity and while this is very broad and a theoretical way to think of it, the takeaway is that you're striving to find a but not to the point where you run into recovery issues and this will be down to you listening really closely to your body and your injury and being sensible enough to find that balance. Now there are extra parts of the recovery that you also need to pay attention to and these things can really help you feel better again but before we go over these, make sure you subscribe and please share your recovery progress, I'd love to know. Now some extra things you can try is number one, something called active rehabilitation. Now athletes commonly use active recovery modalities to sustain blood flow after training or competition by engaging in low moderate intensity exercise. Now according to research, low impact activities, for example swimming, these can really benefit you, it helps increasing the blood circulation due to the hydrostatic pressure created by the water, it's a really great way to help your body recover but also keeping that training intensity. Another thing you can try is cold therapy, this type of therapy involves applying cold to the whole body such as ice baths or cryotherapy, these have been used post-workout in rehab for many years. Cold therapy works through vasoconstriction and restricting the blood supply to the damaged area and this type of therapy helps athletes in their recovery greatly. The concept is simple, you restrict the blood flow, it reduces inflammation and pain perception. Another thing you can try is heat therapy, in contrast to cold therapy this is used by causing vasodilation, so this increases the blood flow towards the problematic area, more blood flow means more nutrient uptake and waste elimination. Another thing you can try is contrast therapy, this approach combines the previous two methods, so it's cold and hot, by alternating between vasoconstriction and vasodilation, this helps to minimize the inflammation, edema and pain perception. The National Center for Biotech Information conducted randomized control trials which showed that contrast bath therapy also helps decrease the lactic acid in your body, helping you to recover from soreness and fatigue of strenuous exercise. The next thing you can try is massage, this is a common post-workout treatment that is thought to reduce the swelling in the soreness, boost blood flow and lactic acid elimination, which in turn improves healing. You can do sports massages or foam rolling, even endostheistherapy, I'll put the link below of a great place that does this, these are examples of things you can try. Disclaimer, this video is for educational purposes only and not a replacement for medical advice or treatment. Also stretching, this has long been a popular post-workout technique for speed and up recovery, stretching is thought to increase the range of motion and also reduces muscle stiffness and also helps clear away that lactic acid buildup. Also you have compression garments, these are intended to increase the venous blood flow and support the muscle structure, this minimizes the inflammatory response and reduces muscle discomfort. So hopefully these tips will help you get back to doing the sport you love, but remember patience and kindness to your body is key to getting you back to your healthy, happy and maintenance self. If you want to know the difference between heat and ice for injuries and you want to learn more about it, click here where I go into more detail.