Sports Injury Rehab with Resistance Bands

If you have ever been unfortunate enough to experience a sports-related injury that has debilitated you for several weeks/months, when the moment comes for rehabilitation, it's very important to find a rehab program that works for you.

Sports injuries can be very painful and extremely uncomfortable, some might need surgery and an extensive rehabilitation program before the Doctor says you're ok to start working out again.

As part of a rehab program, more and more individuals are starting to incorporate resistance bands into their routine exercises. The advantages are plenty and very effective.

Here is a list of sports injuries that can benefit from using resistance bands in their rehab program:

• Jogger's knee
• Tennis elbow
• Dislocated shoulder
• Shoulder discomfort
• ACL recuperation
• Sprains
• Hip bursitis
• And so much more...

Let's take a deeper dive into sports injury rehab with resistance bands.

What are resistance bands?

Resistance bands are commonly used in various types of exercises for almost all body part workouts and have become an essential product in sports rehab programs as well.

Resistance bands have a very basic design, as they are primarily long elasticated rubber bands. Some of them may come with a handle attached to each end, they also come in various lengths and thicknesses, which impact the resistance the band yields. Basically, the thicker the band, the more resistance you'll get.

Bands are color coated to help you determine the amount of resistance and the colors can vary from one supplier to another.

Generally speaking, the band causes muscle contractions as well as imitates the effects accomplished through resistance training using weights and other exercise machines.

Various stages of sport injury rehabilitation

Before we can check out the advantages of resistance bands on sports injury rehab, we initially need to look at the 3 different stages of sport injury rehab.

These consist of:

Acute/early phase-- This first stage of the recuperation procedure commonly entails very mild and light exercise made to aid heal damaged muscle tissue.

2nd stage-- The next phase entails physical therapy which consists of exercises which will normally use resistance bands. The suggestion here is that the bands will certainly add progressive loads to the damaged muscle tissues, bones, joints, or ligaments, in order to assist and strengthen the targeted area for an even more difficult workout.

Functional/late phase-- This final stage is where you focus on the muscles, using a series of functional exercises, helping the muscles adapt and preparing them so that the patient can return to their normal exercise routines.

Tips for utilizing resistance bands after a sports injury.

If you have suffered a sports injury and your in the second phase of rehab, here are a couple of tips on how to use resistance bands effectively.  

Focus on slow movements-- The first thing to keep in mind when using resistance bands to help with sport injury rehab, is to go really slow, focus on form and no need to speed up. The objective is to ensure you keep perfect and controlled form throughout the full range of movements.

Keep the entire session slow-- Just like we mentioned previously, along with the movements being slow and methodical, you need to keep the session/workout slow as well. It's all about sustainable and injury free progress. Keep in mind, your objective here is to repair and strengthen your muscles, not compete or burn fat.

Gradually up the resistance-- Like everything you practice, as you get stronger resistance will get easier for you.

As soon as things start to get easier, you can begin considering using thicker bands and gradually move up in resistance.

In conclusion, resistance bands are a great way to help you improve your flexibility, but you can also use them improve joint mobility.

Resistance bands have proved themselves essential for aiding recovery and are especially useful when it comes to working on hip, shoulder and knee injuries. Don't let yourself suffer, browse the variety of resistance that we have to offer and get yourself started on the path to sustainable recovery.