In the last month that I have been doing jiu-jitsu, I have sprained an ankle, broken a toe, overextended an elbow and pulled a half dozen muscles.
While this may be a bit extreme, injuries are not exclusive to martial arts. Weight lifting can strain your muscles and running can cause shin splints. You can tear your anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), one of the four major ligaments in the knee, playing soccer.
A few of the most common sports-related injuries are pulled muscles, back and knee injuries, tendonitis, sprained ankles and shin splints. Typically, injuries are caused by overuse or misuse of the body. Once I get an injury, I always wonder what I should do, how serious the injury is and whether if I can, or should, still work out.
When one of my roommates rolled her ankle this past week, it resembled more a balloon than an ankle. It is hard to believe, but that inflammation was actually the first step in the healing process. Inflammation doesn't only mean swelling, though. It means that there will be pain, redness and a general inability to use that body part. Even though inflammation is a good sign, most treatment begins with reducing it.
There is a cute pneumonic device I found on Wikipedia to help remember the treatment for inflammation: RICE - Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate. My question is, how long do I need to be laid out on my couch surrounded by ice and pillows, watching TV and getting pity from everyone around me?
I think this is the part where I am obligated to advise you to check with your physician before doing anything rash, like power walking or yogalates. No research I found was bold enough to give me a time frame for when injured athletes can safely work out again.
For me, the way to get back into it is slowly. The sports medicine section of About.com recommends that when you do get an injury, it is best to try and maintain overall fitness when possible. This may mean switching up your fitness routine to an exercise with lower impact, such as swimming or something that takes the pressure off your injured body part. Otherwise, once you feel physically up to it, you can start up your routine again at about 50 to 70 percent of your maximum rate.
Perhaps you aren't a great judge of when your body is ready. Many times it's not easy to tell, but when pain and swelling is gone, you can put weight on the injured body part and you have a full range of motion again, odds are you're back in business.
Injuries, like torn muscles, can take a long time to fully heal, but that's no reason to do nothing in the mean time.
It is important not to push your body when it's not ready to be pushed, but remember that an injury can also be a way to be creative with your future workouts.
