Musculature injuries are damage to muscle tissue, tendons, ligaments or bones. The tendon is the tip of the solid muscle attached to the bone, the ligaments are connective tissue which is the “binding” of some bones to remain stable in motion. The term “tendon” in ordinary people usually refers to the tendon.
A study of soccer players in Europe (Ekstrand et.al, 2012), it was noted that on average every season a player experiences 2 musculature (muscle / ligament / joint / bone) injuries. The most cases were 12% hamstring injury, followed by MCL 9% knee ligaments and 7% quadriceps muscle. Of the total number of cases studied, it turned out that as many as 12% was “re-injury”, or an old injury that relapsed again.
What happens, with injured muscles or ligaments? As in the picture below, any injured muscles or ligaments will be damaged, either light or heavy. Injured tissue will bleed and secrete chemical mediators that trigger inflammation / inflammation (swelling, heat and pain). Inflammatory conditions will lead to impaired function of motion of the muscle groups in question.
Bad habits that are still often done is massaging the muscle / ligament newly injured. Can be imagined when the injured muscle has just been torn then sorted, what happens? Of the tears and bleeding that just happened will be more extensive and severe. Massage or massage is a therapeutic method for smooth blood flow and muscle relaxation. Massage, especially “sports massage”, can be done by the experts after the acute phase of inflammation is completed, that is after a stable injury, no more bleeding and inflammation. Usually “sports massage” to smooth the circulation and restore muscle elasticity can be started after 3 days post injury. Of course should be consulted with a sports doctor to ensure the condition of injury.
In principle there are two main things to do, the first is the handling of pain caused by tissue damage, and the second is to prevent the tissue damage does not get worse so that the healing process can take place quickly. Both of these can occur when we apply COLD THERAPY, i.e. compress the injured area with ice. You do not have to bother doing various therapies during the acute phase of the inflammation, because the healing phase as seen in the picture on the side cannot be accelerated in any way. All we can do is OPTIMIZE the healing process in the right way. A variety of therapeutic methods serve to support the process of healing occurs well.
The length of the recovery process depends on the type of tissue that is injured and the degree of severity. Sports practitioners will provide therapy and “back to play” programming suggestions, which will usually involve trained physiotherapists and instructors.
Before you consult a doctor, first aid against injury should be done well and correctly. False first aid in injury will aggravate injury and slow the healing process.
Actually first aid on muscle and bone injury is quite simple. At the beginning it has been explained that the initial stage of handling the injury is only to overcome the pain and prevent the inflammation process due to tissue damage with cold therapy. For that, among popular sports the term RICE.
Ice, compress with ice. You can use the ice pack, or better ice cubes are crushed small, then put in a plastic bag and wrapped with a thin cloth wet. Why should I coat a thin wet cloth? Because attaching ice directly to the hull potentially causes cold injury in the form of damage to skin cells and soft tissue beneath it because the temperature is too cold. The ice is evenly attached to the injured area, then fanned with elastic band or plastic wrap for 15-20 minutes. Application of ice for injury can be done repeatedly every 1 hour or more depending on the severity of injury. During the acute period of inflammation the compress with ice can continue to be done. Usually the inflammation will stop after 2-3 days.
Compression, the injured area is bandaged with elastic bandage, which aims to minimize movement and prevent or reduce swelling.
Elevation, elevate the injured area so that the blood and fluid that accumulates in the injury area can easily flow so swelling is quickly overcome.