FQ4: How is injury rehabilitation managed Flashcards
What are the different rehabilitation procedures?
- progressive mobilisation
- graduated exercise
- training
- use of heat and cold
What is progressive mobilisation and how does it help an athletes rehabilitation?
Progressive mobilisation is the gradual increase in the joint range of motion/movement. After injury an athletes joints stiffen and tighten, progressive mobilisation slowly stretches the muscles allowing for a gradual increase in the range of motion at the joint.
What is graduated exercise and how does it help an athletes rehabilitation?
Graduated exercise refers to the gradual increase in range of motion, intensity and activities to help ensure an athlete’s recovery is as pain free as possible.
stretching: during the early stages of rehabilitation athletes should undergo static stretching before slowly progressing to PNF and finally dynamic at the end of rehabilitation.
conditioning: : This is the process of strengthening muscles and getting athletes back to their pre-injury levels.
total body fitness: injury causes the reversibility effect which results in a loss of total body fitness. While injured an athlete should still attempt to maintain fitness by doing any form of training or exercise, they are able to (e.g., if they have a broken ankle, they can do upper body training). Before returning to play and athlete should have regained total body fitness.
What training should be done during rehabilitation?
Training can be done to help slow down reversibility and limit loss of fitness.
What training should be done after rehabilitation?
The athlete must regain muscular endurance and strength, speed, power, flexibility and have regained full range of motion.
Aims of after rehabilitation training:
- Develop sport specific fitness components
- Develop sport specific skills
- Increase confidence
- Safely return the athlete to play
What are the benefits of heat rehabilitation and what injuries should it be used for?
heat therapy is used to ease muscle pain and stiffness of joints.
- increased blood flow
- decreased pain
- increased flexibility
- decreased joint stiffness
- increased tissue repair
methods of heat rehabilitations
- heat packs
- hydrotherapy
- infra red lights
What are the benefits of cold rehabilitation and what injuries should it be used for?
- used for acute injuries
The purpose of using cold in rehabilitation is to reduce pain, blood flow/bleeding and inflammation. This is applied immediately after the injury occurs and after treatments/exercise during rehabilitation of the injury. - icepacks (during the first 48 hours of injury)
- ice baths
Why is it important to assess an athletes psychological readiness before they return to play?
Athlete’s returning from injury, may feel anxious about returning to play. This causes poor technique, and can lead to injury somewhere else in the body as they are likely to shield the injured part of their body. Although is players are overconfident when returning to play it will also increase their risk of injury.
What are the benefits of injured athletes having specific warm up procedures when returning to play?
Specific warm up procedures help to protect the athlete against re-injury by ensuring the area has an adequate blood supply and is ready for all that will come during competition.
What are some common policies and procedures that athletes must follow when returning to play?
Return to play policies and procedures are specific to the sport, as some sports are more dangerous than others and require a more strict policy for return to play than other sports.
Many protocols for return to play involve:
- a medical clearance
- scans being completed and reviewed (x-ray, MRI, ultrasound etc)
- fitness and skills tests
- other professional clearance (physiotherapist, exercise physiologist etc)
What are some ethical considerations around athletes returning to play?
- the pressure to participate
- the use of painkillers
Pressure to participate
External pressure to participate in competition before the athlete is ready can come from coaches as they are a vital team member as their absence may be affecting the teams performance, teammates, and fans as they want to see their favourite player play once more.
It is unethical for coaches and other staff to place external pressures upon the athlete to return to play before they are ready. It will lead to greater injury, more time off the field and can destroy an athletes career.
Concussions
definition: a disturbance in brain function caused by trauma.
- players who have suffered a concussion during game play must be medically cleared before returning to play as they could be left with lasting brain damage.
What are the benefits and risks of using painkillers?
benefits:
- can boost moral
- may improve a players performance as they are no longer being restricted by pain
- sense of achievement as they are able to help their team by returning to play
- they are able to maintain total body fitness
- can keep sponsorships and return to play faster
- will suffer less pain
risks:
- can result in worsening of injury
- may extend recovery time
- could result in a reliance of painkillers to play a game
- has side affects e.g. mood swings
