Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Help for muscle strains

I am sure every one of us has experienced some type of muscle strain while pursuing our fitness goals. What is the best way to treat this condition? In nursing school, we learned the acronym RICE.

R is for Rest
- the injured area needs to be rested from the activity that strained it in the first place.

I is for Ice and anti-inflammatories
- ice the affected area, (ice wrapped in a towel) but not for more than 15 minutes at a time. Anti-inflammatories are also often known as NSAIDS or non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs. These include ibuprofen (trade names Advil and Motrin), naproxen or naproxen sodium (trade names Aleve, Anaprox, and Naprosen). Tylenol is not anti-inflammatory, and therefore is not helpful for this.

C is for Compression
- a wrap or compression bandage is often helpful.

E is for Elevation - keep the affected area elevated as much as possible.

Here are links to a couple of articles that explain this more in detail.


http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/legpainandinjuries/a/calf-strain.htm


http://www.googobits.com/articles/p3-1269-no-strain-no-pain-muscle-pulls-and-what-to-do-about-them.html

I hope this information will be helpful. These articles also explain the degrees of injury and projected recovery times.

Tami

4 comments:

Ketty said...

Thanks for the tip Tami, I will try some of them tonight. I really hope my calf can heal because it´s really bugging me :-)
ketty

Siberia said...

Make sure you are also doing stretching exercises before and after exercise. That seemed to help when I first started the CCC. I really hope you feel better soon.

Tami

Unknown said...

Thanks for posting this!

What a blessing!

Would you be up for helping out in a follow up challenge as our RN. ;)

So happy for your Trip too!!

Dani Joy

Siberia said...

Yes, I would love to help out where I can. I definitely want to be part of another challenge. It has helped me challenge myself, and really provided some fellowship that I have been missing.

Tami