Top tips for managing your injury at home.
During this pandemic we are all being urged to stay at home, but this does not mean your injury should be forgotten about. Here are some useful tips for you to stay on top of your injury in the safety of your own home.
Home exercise program.
After your physio assessment you will have been given a set of exercises that will target specific muscles in relation to your injury. Some will be to activate muscles that may be weak or not firing sufficiently, other exercises will help to stretch out tight structures. Now is the time to get them done. We all have more time on our hands so we have no excuse not to do our exercises. Most home exercises require little or no equipment. As always make sure your technique and form is correct, quality trumps quantity when rehabbing an injury!
Need an update please let our team know we are here to help you.
Self-release techniques.
Alongside exercise prescription physio usually offers some hands on manual therapy. Usually we try to release tight structures that we find during our assessment. There are some ways you can do this at home too. Massage balls, foam rollers, tennis balls or your own body can be used to target areas of restriction. If you’re unsure how to do this our physio’s can send you videos to instruct you.
Pain relief.
Depending on the stage of your injury you may still be very sore. Physio usually provides pain relief through our treatment in the clinic but there are some other options you can do at home. Hot and cold therapy usually offer some pain relief. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Cold therapy can be anything from your freezer applied to the injury site for 20 minutes at a time and can be repeated throughout the day. Make sure you take normal precautions to prevent a freeze burn. Heat therapy can be a hot water bottle, a microwavable bean bag or even a hot bath or shower. If your pain is inflammatory in nature certain foods can offer anti-inflammatory properties. Garlic, turmeric and ginger are really easy to add into your diet and they have lots of anti-inflammatory properties.
Try these tips at home, if you’re struggling on your own our physio’s are still available for advice over email or telephone. If your pain worsens, you develop a new injury or you feel you cannot manage your pain we are open for emergency appointments.
Just because we’re on lockdown doesn’t mean your progress has to be paused. You can use this time to really push forward with your rehab, any weakness or restriction your physio has spotted can now be focussed on. Your goal for lockdown can be to build a strong foundation so you can jump back into your sport or hobby in better condition than you were before.
Stay Well, Stay Safe, Stay Healthy