By J.D. Eddy, Editorial Editor
Taking care of your body as a student athlete in collegiate sports is one of the most important things about competing. Being physically healthy means doing several things: stretching, icing and heating an injury; getting proper nutrition, doing regular workouts and maintaining cardiovascular health are some of the necessary steps.
Now, in season, you are going to be hurt. But being hurt is different from handling an injury. Being injured means you have an outstanding physical pain that is entirely impeding your athletic ability. Pulling a hamstring, tearing a muscle, tearing a ligament or having hip pointers, a torn rotator cuff or a broken bone are some examples of injuries that will keep you off the field or court.
Being hurt entails soreness or tightness in muscles. The way to handle this is going to treatment, rehabbing these muscles and stretching or rolling out, which involves a foam roller going across muscles to alleviate this buildup of lactic acid.
These are just some of the main differences being between hurt and injured. But you should still go to treatment and stretch on your own time. Ibuprofen is something to help alleviate this inflammation buildup. Also, walking or being active keeps the muscles loose and ready for activity.
If you are injured, consult the trainer, and you should make sure to get some advice on things to do on your own time as well. Sometimes, these injuries can affect mental states because you get injured and think that the season is over or that your career is over.
The thing is finding that same type of drive in injury rehab, the same kind of drive that you have to compete in the events you want to. Keeping yourself mentally healthy is just as important, showing yourself that this injury will not stop you from competing. You can set goals for yourself on where you want to be or have someone else set the expectations for your injury rehab.
Another thing is injury prevention, which means taking steps to prevent these sorts of obstacles towards your athletic goals. Stim, or electrodes attached to muscles, is something to stimulate blood flow and increase muscle growth to areas that are weakened. With electro static therapy increasing blood flow, it will increase the rate at which these weakened areas heal. Also, adding any sort of heating element to this allows for even more blood flow. By adding heat, it opens the blood vessels more. It’s kind of like a dam opening wider to allow more water to pass through.
The same concepts apply for being hurt. You should still go in and get treatment to prevent injuries, stretch regularly, run more, ice muscle groups after practices or workouts and use a massage gun to help your body relax more.
These are just basic facts about injuries, soreness and ways to prevent some major injuries. This will not always work to help prevent major things, but it is better to be safe than sorry. There are always going to be things that are uncontrollable, like injuries that happen on a whim.