When you suffer an injury playing the sport you love, you want to get back in the game as soon as possible. That’s why it’s important to understand all your sports injury treatment options.
Luckily, with modern medicine, most injuries won’t take you out of the game forever. And, with the right tricks and treatments, you can speed up your healing process significantly.
So what are your sports injury treatment options? Before we dive in, let’s make sure you understand how a proper diagnosis works. Then we’ll go over some surgical and nonsurgical options, and our simple secret for cutting your healing time in half.
How to diagnose a sports injury
Before trying out sports injury treatments, it’s important for you to have a proper diagnosis. If you suspect that one of your joints has been injured, you need to visit a doctor as soon as possible. Your doctor will know the most common sports injuries and how to diagnose them.
To diagnose your sports injury, your doctor will likely:
- Ask how the injury happened and what it felt like
- Discuss any recent changes in activity or intensity levels
- Do a thorough examination of the affected area
- Order an x-ray, CT scan, or MRI to see bone and soft tissue damage clearly
Once you have an official diagnosis, you can move forward with your treatment options. So let’s discuss what your surgical and nonsurgical sports injury treatment options are.
Sports injury treatment options
Your sports injury treatment can vary greatly depending on the type and severity of your issue. For example, torn acl treatment will look vastly different from treatment for a chronic overuse injury.
Your doctor will help you determine which type of treatment will be best in your unique case, but here are some of the options they may recommend for sports injury treatment:
Immobilization
A common sports injury treatment is immediate immobilization. This can be done with slings, splints, braces, or casts.
Immobilization gives the area time to heal and reduces pain and swelling by improving blood flow to the area.
Surgery
If you have torn connective tissues or broken bones, you will usually need surgery. Bear in mind that you will need to be careful with the injured area after recovery, as scar tissue only builds back about 80% as strong as your original tissues.
Your doctor can discuss your surgical options with you based on the type of injury you have.
The RICE method
If your injury isn’t severe, you might be able to get away with the RICE method. This stands for rest, ice, compress, and elevate.
You should try to limit activity for a day or two to rest the injured area as much as possible. During this time, you should regularly apply an ice pack at 20 minute intervals, but no more than eight times a day.
You can also use compression to reduce swelling, but don’t bind the area so tightly that it cuts off your circulation.
Last, but not least, you should try to keep your injury above the level of your heart to reduce swelling.
Physical therapy
Regardless of the type or severity of your injury, you will probably be asked to do physical therapy as part of your sports injury treatment plan.
A physical therapist will give you targeted stretches and exercises to rebuild your strength, balance, and range of motion. Most therapists also have special machines that can soothe the area and improve your natural healing process.
But you don’t have to go to the physical therapist’s office to boost your body’s healing potential. There is an easy way you can do it yourself at home.
Collagen: the secret to swift sports injury treatment
Did you know that collagen can improve your sports injury treatment? In fact, it may just be one of the best ways to speed up your healing process.
Why?
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body, and it’s what your body uses to build new tissue fibers after injury.
While collagen is naturally produced by your body, your production starts to slow down in your mid-20s, and you don’t always have enough resources to pull from for efficient healing. That’s where a regular collagen supplement comes in.
If you don’t believe us, let’s take a look at some studies that back this powerful supplement up.
Collagen can speed muscle recovery
When you hear the term ‘“sports injury recovery,” one of the first things that probably comes to mind is muscle recovery. Muscle recovery is absolutely critical for both injury prevention and treatment.
And did you know that collagen is one of the best muscle repair supplements after injury?
One double-blind, independent study on 24 recreationally active males aimed to look at the impact of collagen on muscle damage, inflammation, and bone turnover.
Participants were asked to perform 150 drop jumps for 7 days before their markers for muscle damage, inflammation, and bone turnover were measured before they were given a collagen supplement. Researchers noted collagen’s benefit on muscle soreness and recovery times.
Collagen can improve joint stability
One of the best treatments for injury is prevention, and collagen is instrumental in sports injury prevention. That’s because collagen can improve the strength, stability, and flexibility of the connective tissues in your joints.
One recent randomized, double-blinded and placebo-controlled study on collagen focused specifically on ankle stability. A group of 50 male and female athletes were given collagen peptide supplementation or placebo for six months.
After six months, they measured ankle functionality using the Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool (CAIT) and the German version of the Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM-G). The majority of the participants on collagen reported significantly improved ankle stability.
To conclude the study, researchers asked the athletes to return for another 3 months follow-up
Collagen can reduce joint pain
Using collagen for joints not only increases stability, it also decreases pain and inflammation.
Knee pain is one of the most common issues we hear about from athletes. Wrong form while weight lifting, overtraining when running, a previous injury, arthritis, and countless other issues may lead to knee pain and require sports injury recovery.
You’ve guessed it right, science says, collagen may help here, too.
One study looked at how collagen may help reduce pain in athletes with functional knee problems. 139 athletic participants were given either collagen or placebo per day for 12 weeks.
The results were mind-blowing.
The collagen group reported significant improvement in activity-related pain intensity while the placebo group didn’t have any change.
If you have knee pain and are looking for a lasting treatment option when it comes to knee injury recovery, collagen may just be your answer. It’s easy to use, helps all the joints and bones in your body, and it doesn’t require needles or regular visits to the doctor.
Collagen can help wounds heal faster
If you are injured or recovering from surgery after injury, you want to heal as quickly as possible. And as we mentioned above, collagen is what your body uses to heal damaged tissues.
Collagen can cut your healing time just about in half by providing your body directly with the building blocks it needs to create new tissue fibers. That’s why so many doctors use collagen in wound healing!
Adding this simple supplement to your sports injury treatment plan could help you recover faster than ever.
That being said, not all collagen supplements are created equal, so let’s discuss the best type of collagen for your sports injury treatment.
Choose Frog Fuel collagen for sports injury treatment
If you want to use collagen to speed up your healing and prevent future injuries, you want to look for a hydrolyzed collagen supplement.
What is hydrolyzed collagen? It is collagen that has gone through a chemical process that breaks the protein down into easy-to-absorb pieces so your body can make the most of your supplement.
Collagen protein in its whole form is actually too big to fit through your stomach pores, so much of it passes through your digestive system before your stomach can actually absorb it.
A hydrolyzed collagen supplement (or better yet, a nano-hydrolyzed supplement) is bioavailable and easy to digest.
You should also look for supplements from a reputable company that have plenty of positive reviews and don’t contain any harmful additives.
Frog Fuel collagen is much more than just a simple collagen supplement for quick nutrition. Unlike most other collagen supplements, it is fortified to be a complete protein, and our nano-hydrolyzed collagen is pre-digested with special fruit enzymes so it can support your athletic performance and sports injury recovery.
Our liquid protein shots don’t need to be mixed with anything, and are designed for rapid absorption and maximum bioavailability. Our formula is used and trusted by over 3,500 medical facilities around the country, and it could be just what your body needs to recover from injury.
Success stories from our customers
Personal stories speak louder than anything. Here are what our customers have to say about Frog Fuel and injury recovery:
“Great for recovery as I had a shoulder injury that just wouldn’t heal. Shortly after using this product I started making progress with my shoulder. I’m giving this product the credit.” (Elijah D.)
“This product really helps recovery from injury or surgery. It also helps as a midday pick me up.” (Philip G.)
“After using your product, an injury that I was having a hard time with healing started to feel much better. I’ll be ordering more in the next coming days. Thank you.” (William K.)
“Have been using this for several years now and it’s my go to protein. Started using it to help recover from an injury and following surgery and even my PT tech said I recovered faster than normal even in my 40s. Now in my early 50s, it keeps me going longer than others my age and keeps me healthy. Highly recommend Frog Fuel!” (Jimmy B.)
If you want a high-quality collagen supplement to support your sports injury recovery, look no further. Frog Fuel liquid collagen promotes health, performance, and recovery with its high-quality, medical-grade liquid protein shots that were developed by Navy SEALs and a Stanford biochemist.
Pick up our Frog Fuel liquid protein shots to support your injury recovery. And make sure to report back with your sports injury treatment results and post-recovery gains and achievements.
