Injury Rehabilitation

For most athletes, a serious injury is the worst thing that can happen. Not only must time be taken away from the current season to allow for healing, but injuries have the nasty habit of reappearing. Future seasons will always be bracketed with caution, and preventative medicine must be worked into all future training plans.

Making Your Comeback

The most important thing about injury rehabilitation is to take it slow. Too many athletes have wound up back on the bench after rushing a recovery and trying to compete on a half-healed injury. Causing further damage to an injured limb often is an even worse injury than the initial one, and can even be beyond repair. If you're seriously injured, you're probably out for the current season, and should focus your energies on next year.

The second most important thing to do is to follow your rehab routine religiously. It is common for an athlete to do strengthening exercises until his injury no longer hurts, and then become halfhearted about the rest of the work. This often results in uneven strength between limbs, which is an invitation for future injury.

Finally, look into any deeper causes of injury. Even once you have repaired the damage done by an injury, see a specialist to see how your injury may have been prevented. A kinesiologist or other specialist may be able to use motion analysis to identify flaws in your form that might have contributed to your injury. Fixing your form can do wonders to prevent future injury, and often improves performance as well.