A good motto we have at Balance In Motion is “understand the movements required for the patient to succeed and create resilience and strength in the body. Plus continually review changes in the science”

The way Physiotherapists manage injuries is constantly evolving. Personally i’ve come a long way from pushing the sore bit and putting machines on a patient 23 years ago. We now know that doesn’t work. Another example is when you just injure yourself we now recommend the POLICE protocol not the RICE protocol (more on this later). 

It is generally agreed that you break an injury program down into phases but with a very active exercise focused program. We now know that prolonged periods of pure rest can negatively affect the majority of injuries. 

It is also generally recommended that rehab is progressed via goals not time.  There is a very big time difference between a 23 year old full time athlete with nothing else to do and a working mum with 3 kids under 7 hitting the same functional goal.

The first acute phase such as rolling your ankle or pulling your calf is all about promoting tissue healing and down training old unhelpful movement patterns. 

This can be a frustrating time. Coming to terms with your weekly training routine falling apart, your mental health suffering from the lack of endorphins and your goals you wanted to achieve looking further away,

Traditionally, we were taught to employ rest, ice, compression, and elevation (R.I.C.E) with the aim of avoiding further tissue damage, reducing associated pain, swelling, and attempt to promote the healing process. 

Although recently immobilization and rest have been shown to have a potentially detrimental effect on muscle tone and strength. It was recently proposed that we as Physios follow a protocol inclusive of protection, optimal loading, ice, compression, and elevation (P.O.L.I.C.E) for initial acute injury management.

Early mobilization and tissue loading (generally after 48 hours) has shown to have a positive effect to promote tissue reorganization and tissue healing. Ideally as soon as pain permits. 

Reconditioning phase

Rehabilitation involving strength and conditioning looks very different between two patients. Strength for someone that has never used certain muscle groups could look like lifting there arms up on their back with 1kg weights. It could also look like squatting 100kg 3 days after tearing your hamstring.

 It is really important to monitor the persons rehabilitation to ensure optimum loading of injured and recovering tissues through an individualized approach. Just because something isn’t still hurting it doesn’t mean the tissue has fully recovered.

Gradually loading healing tissue plays a successful role in a rehab program. It actually has a name - mechanotherapy. Tissue needs more weight to heal. 

Return To Sport And Training 

Once you are ticking all the functional goals and feeling pain free it’s time to plan your return to training and sport. The assessment of risk is an art as well as a science. With more and more protocols being studied for different injuries and sports. 

Once the athlete is training, a partial return to sport is recommended, which may include not playing an entire game or coming on as a substitute.

Prevention Of Reinjury

A previous injury is the highest risk factor of reinjury and therefore, it is extremely important to monitor you even when you have returned  to full participation. 

Modern rehabilitation methods have significantly increased the time to return to the playing field compared with old school protocols We attempt to get someone on the field asap. If you have just had a sporting injury and want to get back on the field asap without reinjury, give us a call on 02 93650004 or click HERE to book online