If you have ever suffered an injury during athletics or exercise, a physical therapist or athletic trainer may advise you to remember the pneumonic “RICE” during treatment. In this case, RICE stands for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation, and oftentimes these simple treatment strategies can start your recovery off on the right foot.
RICE is a great reminder for what you should do the first 24-48 hours after an injury, but after that period, it’s usually beneficial to switch to a different pneumonic, and that’s LOVE. In today’s blog, we explain why you’ll want to show your injury some LOVE during your rehabilitation period.
What’s LOVE Got To Do With Rehab?
After the first 48 hours, many soft tissue injuries will actually respond better to LOVE than RICE. Here’s what LOVE has to do with your rehab.
- Load – As we’ve talked about on the blog on numerous occasions in the past, rest is only good in the short-term. Resting and avoiding all activities that put stress on your injured body isn’t ideal for getting your body back to a pre-injury level of fitness. You’re going to want to get up, get moving and put some pressure on the injured area as tolerable. A little bit of stress or low-impact exercise can work to strengthen injured areas and aid in the healing process. You may actually heal quicker if you pursue light activities instead of just laying around in bed waiting for healing to run its course.
- Ongoing – For many patients, pursuing activities like light exercise or physical therapy won’t be a one-time thing if they hope to make the strongest recovery possible after an injury or surgery. It’s not uncommon for PT to last for weeks or months to ensure the patient continues to make steady progress in their recovery. Don’t skip sessions, terminate your PT routine early or decide to settle for “good enough.” Know that optimal recovery won’t occur overnight.
- Vascularization – You want to push healthy blood to the injury site so that oxygenated and nutrient-rich blood can assist with the healing process. Cardiovascular exercise can promote improved blood flow and boost tissue healing, so begin to take on more activities that get your heart pumping. Be sure not to push yourself too hard, as this can leave you susceptible to a setback, but low-impact exercise can provide a boost to your recovery, so get up and get moving.
- Expertise – Finally, if you really want to do everything you can to make a complete recovery following an injury or surgery, connect with an expert. The team at OrthoRehab Specialists would be more than happy to create a recovery routine tailored to your specific strengths, deficits and personal goals. If you want to get back to work or rejoin your sports team as soon as possible, let an expert help guide this process. We devote our professional lives to helping people get stronger, and we can do the same for you!
Show your body some LOVE during your recovery period, and we’re confident that you’ll make a great recovery. For more information, or for help with a different PT-related issue, reach out to the team at OrthoRehab Specialists today at (612) 339-2041.
PT of Costa Rican National Soccer Team for 2007 World Cup in Victoria, CAN. Clinical Instructor for University of Minnesota Doctor of Physical Therapy Affiliations
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