The fastest way to recover from a sports injury

There is no "universal fastest magic formula" that applies to all injuries. The most efficient recovery logic currently recognized by the global sports medicine community is to "clear the injury type first and then intervene accurately in stages + proactively avoid common recovery misunderstandings." If done properly, recovery can be 30% to 50% faster than blind rest, and it can also significantly reduce the probability of secondary injuries.

Last year I ran the Hangzhou Half Marathon with a friend. He stepped into a pothole and sprained his foot in the last kilometer. As soon as he got off the course, he sat on the side of the road and violently rubbed his swollen ankle. He also urged me to spray him with blood-activating and blood-stasis-removing medicine. That night, his ankle was swollen like a freshly steamed soup dumpling, and he couldn't even put on his shoes. It was originally just a mild anterior talofibular ligament strain, and I could return to jogging at a normal pace in 3 weeks. However, due to incorrect operation in the acute stage, it took me one and a half months to dare to walk normally, which turned "fast" into "slow".

When it comes to the treatment of the acute phase, in fact, there are still two schools of thought in the sports circle: Most of the older generation of team doctors believe in the traditional RICE principle, which advocates strict rest, ice application, pressure bandage, and elevation of the affected limb immediately after the injury, and do not touch the injured area at all.； In recent years, the POLICE principle has become popular internationally. It is believed that there is no need to completely immobilize. As long as there is no pain, you can do a very small range of activities. On the contrary, it can promote blood circulation and speed up swelling. In fact, both statements are correct. If you have a severe ligament tear or even a suspected fracture, then you must follow RICE and do not move blindly to avoid aggravating the injury. ； If it is just a mild sprained foot or muscle strain, you can really heal faster by hooking your foot and turning your joints within 72 hours. I sprained my ankle during aerobics two years ago. I applied ice for 15 minutes every 2 hours and moved my ankle lightly when nothing happened. The swelling was half gone the next day, which was 10 days faster than the first time I lay down completely motionless with my sprained foot. But no matter where you stand, there is a consensus that all professionals agree on: within 72 hours, do not apply safflower oil blindly, do not soak your feet in hot water, and do not go to a massage parlor to press the injured area hard. Touching it will only aggravate the swelling, and you will simply make yourself suffer.

But no matter how well the acute phase is handled, 90% of people will fall into the same trap: mistaking "no pain" as "already recovered." In the past two months, there was a young man who played guard in the moon friend group. He stretched his cruciate ligament while grabbing rebounds. An MRI showed that he had a minor injury. The doctor asked him to recover for 4 weeks before slowly returning to exercise. He felt that his knee no longer hurt at all after 2 weeks, so he went to play halftime and jumped up. When I came to grab the board, I heard a "click", and when I went to check it out, it turned out to be a second degree tear. I ended up wearing a brace for 2 months, and it took me half a year to return to the court. What could have been done in 4 weeks took 6 times longer. Do you think this is faster or slower?

When the swelling has subsided and there is only slight pain when you press it, stop lying down and scrolling through your phone every day. At this time, taking the initiative to do low-intensity rehabilitation training can greatly speed up recovery. Don't think that rehabilitation training is something very profound. If you have a sprained foot, you can practice holding a towel with the arch of your foot, sitting and writing the word "rice" with your feet. If your knee is injured, practice straightening your legs and squatting against the wall. These are small actions that may seem inconspicuous, but the effect is much better than lying down every day. I was chatting with a rehabilitation specialist from a provincial team before. They said that the recovery of professional athletes in the first two weeks after injury is all about these basic movements, just like a newly glued porcelain bowl. You have to try to fill it with cold water and then warm water. If you pour boiling water directly, it will definitely crack again.

There is another topic that everyone is quarreling about: Is it useful to take supplements after injury? Some people say that aminoglycosides and collagen peptides are recovery medicines, while others say they are all IQ taxes. Objectively speaking, if you have injured cartilage or meniscus, and you are over 35 years old, and your own cartilage repair ability has declined, eating appropriately can really help. ； If you are a young man in your early 20s and only have a muscle strain or a mild ligament sprain, it is enough to take more protein and vitamins with a normal meal. No matter how much supplements you take, it will not speed up your recovery. As for the idea of ​​drinking bone soup to supplement calcium, forget it. The calcium in a pot of bone soup is less than a cup of pure milk. It is all fat. Drinking too much will only make you fat, and it will not help recovery at all.

When walking and activities are no longer painful, don’t rush into high-intensity exercise immediately. First, test whether the function has returned to the level before the injury: for sprained feet, first try to see if you can stand on one foot stably for 30 seconds, and if you can step on your foot 20 times without pain.； If you have a knee injury, try to see if you can squat to the end without shaking, and if you can do small jumps 10 times without feeling any discomfort. After confirming that there is no problem, slowly resume exercise. Start with brisk walking and jogging for 1 kilometer. When playing, practice fixed-point shooting and half-court 3v3. Gradually increase the amount. Professional teams call this step "special adaptation training." If you omit this step, you are particularly prone to secondary injuries. The recovery speed of a secondary injury is at least twice as slow as the first time, so the gain outweighs the gain.

In fact, after all is said and done, "fastest" itself is a somewhat misleading term. The more you focus on "fast", the easier it is to operate blindly and step on pitfalls, which will make it slower. Intervening in a down-to-earth manner according to your own injury and physical condition, without doing anything blindly or forcefully, is the fastest way. Really, I have seen too many examples of haste making waste. When it comes to recovering from sports injuries, slow is fast. This is true.