R.I.C.E

I was with a client recently who is 7 weeks into the recovery of a very severe torn hamstring. The accident happened whilst he was riding , he fell and landed HARD through his leg, jarring it violently as he tried to stay balanced. With adrenalin pulsing through his body and a group of fellow riders to keep up with he climbed back up and finished the morning. He knew he had done some damage but carried on with his day, going out to dinner in the evening. After a glass of wine he felt very odd and realised he was in 'shock'. The next day again he had family comittments etc, I saw him in the evening and was quite alarmed by the blackness of the bruising/level of swelling, we did very gentle flushing strokes, the leg looked pretty bad. It was at this point after talking I realised that he had not made time to even apply ice to the area.

The first 24 hours after a new injury the best route to follow is what we call RICE, Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. As soon as the injury has happened Rest. The body is amazing and wants to start to heal you, no matter how 'ok' you think you feel, stop. Apply Ice as quickly as you can to the local damaged area, for 10 minutes  to reduce tissue swelling, the surrounding area needs to stay warm to carry away fluid. Ice then needs to be reapplied every 2 hours. Compression is not always an easy thing to apply if you do not have stretchy bandages or the injured area is hard to reach so in this case just try to be still, keep movement to a minimum, if it is a leg or arm and a bandage is handy then as long as it is not too tight then put it on for support. Elevation is just that, feet up, arm up, sit up, basically you want swelling to reduce so where possible elevate above hip height.

If these simple steps can be followed for 24-48 hours then the continuing recovery will be greatly improved and further damage minimal.

My poor chap had so much life to attend to that his leg doubled in size, he had badly torn muscle tissue which would have worsened by continuing to ride and not administering any real recovery methods for about three days. Thankfully he is now almost there with the injury but it has taken probably 3 weeks longer than it needed to, frightened him and his family and taught him a valuable/hard lesson in pride. Luckily he is very fit and has followed all advice to the letter since and will be back to all his activities soon.

Injuries are horrid, no one can predict an accident but good recovery massage can be a great preventative measure if part of a training programme. We plan our lives and expect to be able to do all things on the list, don't ignore niggles, they are warnings!

When I worked at The London Wasps Rugby Club one of the players once said "real men get injured." The person you are after recovery from a 'stopping' injury is usually a little wiser and more respectful of the gift that is our amazing body.