Do Exercises Always Work For Sports Injuries?

August 30, 2018

Exercise

Sports Injuries

Why do Most Exercises never Work for Sports Injuries?

When I get patients suffering from sports injuries, many are shocked to hear I’ll be giving them exercises to help with their recovery.  Many think that because they are active they don’t need exercise to help them get better.  Especially if their sports injury is from exercising. This causes lots of confusion.

The main reason exercises never work to help sports injuries is because they are being done at the wrong time in recovery, for the wrong reason, and in the wrong load.

There’s a myth among people who’ve had bad physical therapy that anytime a person gets injured, doing any kind of exercise will help you get better.  This is because these people didn’t have specialized physical therapy with plans tailored to their condition and in line with their goals.  Too often patients tell us they were given a sheet of exercises to do on their own and the physical therapist would check back in from time to time.  This is not tailored to their condition or specific to their goals and is the reason it fails to provide any help.

Why Doing Just Any Exercise Won’t Help!

I’d go so far as to say it IS what is causing millions of people to suffer from physical problems like back pain and neck pain, and even keeps injured runners on the sidelines for months (and years) longer than is necessary.

And it has happened because the primary care physician will have you believe that the answer to anything physical is to just go and do “some exercises” and keep it moving.

(Heard that line before?…)

So you go to the internet and look up “the best exercises for (fill in the blank) pain”.

I hear it from very confused (and frustrated) runners, CrossFit athletes, tennis players, and golfers on a daily basis.

Internet doesn’t help of course- one search on there and 1000 exercises will appear that ‘look right’ and promise that if you do them, all of your problems will be solved.

But really, most of the time general exercises don’t work for a specific problem.

There’s also a huge difference between doing exercises that recover you safely from a sports injury and those that just get you up and about again quickly (meaning “unsafely”).

The prime example is for Achilles tendinitis, a common sports injury.  We wrote a blog post all about 3 things you can do to help avoid tearing your Achilles you can do at home.  In the post, you’ll notice there aren’t specific exercises you must do to help the tendon recover because if you don’t load it properly you can make things worse.

How to know if you are doing the correct exercises

When it comes to doing the right exercises, here’s a trick that most people miss:

You need to have at least three different types– all working sequentially, simultaneously, and running concurrently alongside the treatment of a specialist who works on the injury and knows just how far it can be “safely” pushed.

For example:

Did you know that you should be starting with static exercises in the first few days, adding in some dynamic stretches as the injury progresses? Or that starting “core” type exercises is vital from day one?

Static exercises, also known as isometrics, are important to keep as much muscle strength as possible while recovering from a sports injury.  This blog post makes these recommendations perfectly when looking for relief from knee pain.

And that’s before I even start talking about exercises to improve proprioception and flexibility.

To get the very BEST results from “just doing exercises”, you HAVE to combine all of these different types into one plan that is perfect for YOU.

Then progress that plan regularly, as progress allows, and always take into consideration that it’s not about easing the pain or getting up and at it again as fast as possible. It’s about being safely able to get back to running or playing without the fear of the injury happening again, any time soon.

That’s what I do for my patients.

I’d like to do it for you too.

And if you’d like to know the ONLY exercises that you should be doing for your sports injury, and have a custom exercise plan made just for you and your specific fitness goals, please make your inquiry here:

Press the button below and fill out a simple form that will appear and let us create a custom treatment visit that will work best for you.

 

P.S. It is going to work for you…

And you will love everything that I do for you to get you fit!

And if you don’t or I don’t deliver on my promise, you will leave without paying.

You’ve got nothing to lose.

I only want for you to leave my care, fit, happy, and confident that you’re not going to break down again anytime soon.

More Sports Injury Tips Here:

 

Nick Hunter, PT, DPT
Latest posts by Nick Hunter, PT, DPT (see all)

You Might Also Like...