If you ask most people what they should do after an injury, the most common response will be “rest and ice“. Well, as it turns out, that does not heal an injury and can significantly increase the risk of injury and the development of chronic pain.
In fact, just waiting it out and hoping your injury will heal itself not only has poor results, it also carries big risks. For example, rest does not remove scar tissue or swelling, nor does it strengthen weakened ligaments and muscles, nor does it rebuild healthy stabilization and proper range of motion.
In other words, your injury will most likely remain weak and unstable for years (and possibly for life). That not only reduces your overall performance ability, but also significantly increases your risk of future injury and the development of chronic pain.
In contrast, the power of rehab lays in the fact that the pro-active combination of proven healing techniques that stimulates the body’s healing response after an injury. It turns out, rehab supports and promotes exactly what the body needs. As a result, rehab heals the body much quicker and much better than rest alone.
Here’s a short list of the positive effects you can expect from an excellent rehab program:
- Pain Free Movement – walking, running, hiking, jumping, etc.
- Full Range of Motion – this helps the overall movement of your whole body and helps PROTECT your joints from injury.
- Improved Speed, Agility and Quickness – perform better in sports & life.
- Increased Strength and Stability – overall balance and coordination improves significantly.
- Lower Risk of Future Injury – you won’t need inhibiting braces that slow you down and weaken your joints
A few studies…
In one study, knee ligaments immobilized for even a few weeks showed that the ultimate load, linear stiffness, and energy-absorbing capacity of the ligaments to be reduced to about one third of normal.
In a review of 11 trials involving 868 patients, results showed that those who included early mobilization compared to those following the standard rest and ice treatment reported a shorter sick leave with faster return to sport participation.
In addition, they showed less days missed from work with less visits to a clinic for follow-up, and improved range of motion with better functional scores.
In another study of 127 soccer players, 42% of those who had unstable joints got an injury versus 11% of those who had normal, stable joints.
In fact, according to the Journal of Athletic Training:
“Adequate strength is necessary for normal movement patterns. The importance of developing correct motor patterns while subjects perform flexibility and strength exercises cannot be overemphasized.”
Prolonged rest will ensure that your body has great difficulty regaining its pre-injury strength, stability and range of motion, because it does NOTHING to deal with this damage.
The only way to effectively get your injury back to full strength is through a good rehab program that can strengthen and stabilize your injured ligaments and muscles as well as heal the neuromuscular damage and break up and remove the scar tissue.
According to other research, “the effectiveness of the rehabilitation program after injury often determines the success of future function and athletic performance. Range of motion, muscular strength, power, and endurance must be returned to pre-injury levels so that full, asymptomatic functional activities may be performed to the pre-injury level and beyond.”
So, don’t just try to wait it out… Our rehab programs were designed to be extremely effective and easy to use at home. They will help you quickly and effectively remodel and repair the damage from an injury and eliminate chronic pain safely.
J Athl Train. 2002 Oct-Dec; 37(4): 413–429.
Tropp H, Ekstrand J, Gillquist J Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1984; 16(1):64-6.
Andrews J R, Harrelson G L, Wilk K E. 2nd ed WB Saunders; Philadelphia, PA: 1998. Physical Rehabilitation of the Injured Athlete.
