What if I told you there was a way to get your injured soccer player back on the field quicker? Or you’re injured baseball player back on the pitcher’s mound faster than if you just rested the injury? We all want the absolute best for our kids. This should be the same whenever it comes to treating their sports injuries!
Our last article discussed how to determine if your young athlete has a muscle strain. This article primarily discusses what a muscle strain is, how to diagnose this common youth sports injury, and the recovery and healing processes associated with it. This article will discuss the best treatment for a muscle strain to accelerate healing and get your young athlete back on the field safely and in a timely manner!
Should You Rest a Muscle Strain?
While you should definitely be smart when managing a muscle strain, rest alone will not speed up recovery and will not prepare you to go back to your practice and games at your best. You should not be foolish with your muscle strain and immediately return to your normal activities at the same intensity, resting certainly is not the best option for treating this injury. Resting for extended periods of time will simply weaken and tighten the muscles and certainly will not provide any blood flow necessary for healing.
Therapy is designed to increase blood flow and build the soft tissue (muscle, tendon, ligament, nerve) capacity in the local musculature are the best therapies to accelerate healing and recovery. This includes progressing levels of exercise, manual therapy, and pulsed pneumatic compression as good treatment options to increase blood flow and build the local tissue capacity. Finding a sports injury specialist in the Jacksonville or Saint Johns area that can provide the right treatments for a muscle strain can be the difference in safely returning to sports sooner vs spending extra time on the sideline.
Different Treatment Methods Are Better Than Others
Possibly the best treatment for any type of muscle, tendon, or ligament injury is a controlled and progressive exercise program. Exercise rehabilitation will help increase blood flow but mainly it will increase the strength and resiliency of the injured tissue to help repair the injury and decrease the chances of re-injury. Exercise rehab programs for a muscle strain will often start with slow, simple, bodyweight exercises and then progressed to more sport specific exercises progresses in their rehabilitation. The physical exercises will include a combination of isometric (no movement), eccentric (muscle lengthening), and concentric (muscle shortening) exercises that are tailored to the individual athlete.
Soft-tissue techniques can be very effective at decreasing tightness in certain muscles, activating weaker muscles, increasing mobility, and increasing blood flow to the injured tissue. These techniques include manipulation (chiropractic adjustments), joint mobilizations, myofascial release, massage, sports cupping, foam rolling, and scraping.
Pulsed pneumatic compression therapy can also help speed up recovery from soft-tissue sports injuries. Compression boots or sleeves help deliver a pulsed compression designed to rush blood flow to the injured area. The added blood flow will help flush out stagnant blood and bring in vitamins, minerals, and other healing nutrients to help your damaged muscle recover faster and to decrease soreness. Our sports clinic here in Saint Johns uses Normatec compression boots which are used by all the professional sports teams in the NBA (basketball), NFL (football), and MLB (baseball).
Read our previous blog, to learn about a specific case where we treated a local youth baseball player here in the Jacksonville area who suffered a muscle strain!
Aside from muscle injuries, we have helped many other patients and youth athletes recover from foot and knee pain, plantar fasciitis, ankle sprains, headaches, shoulder and elbow pain, low back and neck pain, and tendonitis! It is our goal to get you out of pain quickly and rehabilitate your injury so that you can get back to enjoying the sports that you love with your teammates!
If you know someone in the Saint Johns, Florida area (Durbin Crossing, Aberdeen, RiverTown, Julington Creek Plantation, Beachwalk, Silverleaf) who is not able to live the active lifestyle that they want because of an injury or pain and could benefit from our thorough approach and comprehensive care, please share this post with them or send them our way!
We are conveniently located just south of Jacksonville in between CR 210 and Race Track Road, near where St. Johns Parkway and Longleaf Pine intersect! Right across the street from Patriot Oaks Academy in the 32259 zip code! Only 4 minutes from Durbin Park! We are committed to offering the best chiropractic care near you!
We help active adults & youth athletes get out of pain quickly & rehabilitate their injuries so they can get back to doing what they love pain-free!
We are a proud supporter of the Creeks Baseball Club, Blue Chip Basketball, Patriot Oaks Academy, Swiss Point Middle School, Freedom Crossing Academy, and other youth sports programs!
