Rehabilitation Procedures
What is progressive mobilisation?
Refers to the gradual increase in the joint range of motion/movement.
What is graduated exercise?
Graduated exercise refers to the gradual increase in range of motion, intensity, and activities to help ensure the athlete’s recovery is as pain free as possible. Graduated exercise will progress through three (3) stages – stretching, then conditioning, then total body fitness
Pain free and degree of mobility
What testing should be done when monitoring progress?
Pre and post testing
What stretching is most beneficial in graduated exercise?
PNF stretching is the most common and usually the most beneficial form of stretching during rehabilitation. Gains in range of motion/movement are large, which helps prevent joint stiffness and promotes recovery.
Why is progressive mobilisation needed?
Progressive mobilisation is required because of this tightening of the muscles and stiffening of the joint. Progressive mobilisation, slowly stretches the muscles allowing for a gradual increase in the range of motion at the joint. Should begin as early as possible, in order to help prevent scare tissue and to reduce the recovery time.
Why is monitoring progress needed for rehabilitation?
These tests are used in monitoring progress. When the tests conducted produce results similar with the pre-tests, then rehabilitation can stop, provided other indicators of readiness to return to play are present. i.e. the athlete is pain free, has good mobility and is psychologically ready to return to play.
What can happen to an athlete if they are not psychologically ready to return to play?
If an athlete is not confident in their bodies ability to manage competition they will shield the injured side to protect it. This causes poor technique, and can lead to injury somewhere else. Furthermore, a lack of confidence from the athlete will diminish their performance, and in contact sports can make them hold back from a tackle, which can lead to injury.
During rehabilitation training can be done to help slow down and limit the loss of fitness. Often athletes will train using their non-injured side or using their non-injured limbs
Why is training vital during rehabilitation?
Training during rehabilitation is vital to help counteract reversibility. Reversibility affects each component of fitness and each must be trained in order to ensure a safe return to play for the athlete.
What case study did we complete which looked at an athlete's psychological readiness return to play and what happened to them?
Simone Biles - 2020 Tokyo Olympics
Are specific warm ups needed for athlete's returning from injury? Why?
Specific warm up procedures help to protect the athlete against re-injury by ensuring the area has an adequate blood supply and is ready for all that will come during competition.
What are the benefits of heat for rehabilitation?
What is the purpose of using cold during rehabilitation?
The purpose of using cold in rehabilitation is to reduce pain, blood flow/bleeding and inflammation. This is applied immediately after the injury occurs and after treatments/exercise during rehabilitation of the injury.
What is the most important aspect of specific warm up procedures?
The most important aspect of the specific warm up procedures is that they target the injured area and replicate competition demands. Warm ups should always be specific to the sport.
What are the return to play protocols for athlete's to return to play?
What is the difference between conditioning and total body fitness?
Conditioning is the process of strengthening muscles and getting them back to their pre-injury levels. This is in relation to muscular strength, muscular endurance, speed, and power. Conditioning is always specific to the injury, and the athlete involved.
If possible an athlete should be doing any exercise possible while injured. This could be upper body training, while the athlete recovers from an injured ankle, or lower body training if they have just had a shoulder reconstruction. Often it is possible for the athlete to do some forms of training while injured.
Identify some examples of exercises that can be used to regain total body fitness.
Using treadmills - Controlled environment, can adjust speed to suit injury, can be increased as injury continues to improve
Why aren’t such return to play policies applied to all sports? (give an example)
These return to play policies and procedures are not blankly applied to all sports because each sport is different and therefore, require different policies.
Football has a very different policy to boxing when it comes to a player being knocked out. In boxing the athlete is banned from competition and sparing for a minimum of 28 days the first time and 3 months the second, while in football, the player cannot return to the match that day, but once he is cleared by the medical team can return to normal activities.
What 2 ethical considerations relate to return to play protocols?
The pressure to participate - All athletes, regardless of their level of competition feel pressure to participate in competition. However, there is no doubt that more pressure is placed upon the elite athlete than a novice. Pressure to participate can be both internal (from the athlete) and external (placed upon the athlete).
Use of painkillers - ain exists to tell the athlete when a particular movement causes further damage to the body. Pain is an indicator that injury is occurring or has occurred. To stop an athlete from being able to feel pain will lead to the athlete causing greater injury to their body because they will not be able to identify when a movement is causing further injury and will not be able to modify their movements accordingly.