What happens when I  get injured?

Sports injuries are mainly due to direct blows, over stretching, tearing, twisting forces and overuse. The injured tissues involved are usually muscles and tendons, ligaments, skin and bones.

Not withstanding the cause of the trauma, all of the above mentioned tissues respond in a very similiar way when injured. Their process can be summarised

  1. Initial Bleeding
  2. Inflammation
  3. Alteration to normal blood supply
  4. Establishment of new tissue

When to use Ice?

After injury, ice should be appied for 20 -30 minutes. This application should be repeated every 2 - 3 hours while there is pain or swelling. As the injury becomes more chronic ice may still be used while there is pain, swelling or inflammation but not necessarily as frequently.

Cold application has been shown to be very effective in reducing pain and muscle spasm, but until now there have been a number of problems associated with using ice...

What do I do when I have an injury?

The aim of the initial treatments of any sports injury is to institute basic first aid, i.e. to make the person as comfortable as possible and minimise the secondary effects of the trauma by controlling the bleeding as quickly as possible this is usually done by the R.I.C.E protocol

Rest - Should be encouraged to reduce further stress on the injured area

Ice & Compression - To assist in minimising the swelling and bleeding which accompanies an injury. The more swelling there is the more difficult it is for the body to work to regain normal motion and function. Ice and compression used together work better than ice or compression alone.

Elevation - To drain any swelling back to the heart from a gravity affected area.