As physiotherapists dealing with injuries to various parts of the body, we often hear that “such-and-such professional athlete had the same injury as me, how come he/she was back to playing so much faster?”
In reality, no one injury or condition is completely like another. While healing timelines for soft tissue injuries are roughly the same for everybody, certain factors can play a role in speeding up, or slowing down, the process significantly. The most important ones I have found are:
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Nutrition
If a person is malnourished, or dehydrated, their body will not have adequate amounts of nutrients available to assist in the healing process. This can be seen frequently in people with poor eating habits. Eating well at each meal and snack, and drinking plenty of water throughout each day, will provide your body with ample minerals and nutrients to heal. Taking supplements only tops up whatever is already in your body, it does not replace proper eating habits.
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Rest
When injured, your body requires a significant amount of rest to allow healing to progress. Unlike many wealthy professional athletes, our daily household chores and obligations often do not permit us to take the sufficient break we need. So, rather than icing and rest, we are taking out the garbage, taking the kids to school, cleaning the yard etc…. Most professional athletes only need to do what they are told too by their medical staff, and very little else. Their job is to get better and get back onto the playing field as quick as possible, so everything else becomes optional.
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Accurate and timely diagnosis
We often hear from clients that they injured themselves several weeks or months prior, and just figured their injury would get better on its own. This often becomes lost time in the world of healing. Professional athletes are usually getting looked at immediately after an injury, and can take steps to begin the healing process within a very short amount of time. Think of this like a cut that’s bleeding—the sooner you stop the bleeding, the sooner your body can begin to heal.
Immediate access to specialists and diagnostic imaging also help guide the healing pathway, as it can lead to an accurate diagnosis and proper treatment regime; this luxury is often not available to the average person in society. As a result of waiting, often several months, for MRI scans and specialist consultations, our injuries can hit a plateau and not progress, because we don’t have an accurate picture of which tissues are at fault. Getting in to see your physiotherapist is the first step — the sooner you can get seen after an injury, the sooner you can get started on the proper pathway for your rehabilitation.
So, in summary, professional athletes DO NOT heal faster than the average person. However, what they do have are: above average eating habits, adequate time to heal, and immediate access to medical professionals for an early diagnosis. The body can only heal so fast, but the process can be drastically slowed down when any of these three factors are not optimized.
The physiotherapists at South Cowichan Physiotherapy and Sports Rehabilitation are always available to see you to assist in speeding up your recovery process. Call the office today to optimize your healing potential!!
Written by:
Vince Avery, BScPT, FCAMPT, CGIMS
Co-Owner of South Cowichan Physiotherapy
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