Career Interrupting Injuries contents

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C areer Interrupting Injuries
How to come back from them and how to avoid reinjury

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I have some misgivings about writing this article, because I don't really mean to be dispensing medical advice on the web. I mean this to be a journal of what's worked for me when it comes to rehabilitating injuries, and training on the comeback trail. Hopefully this experience may prove useful to someone who hasn't done it as many times as I have.
This article presents some methods of training and aquiring the proper attitude to come back from medium severity leg injuries.
About every six months I look back on the previous season and feel thankful if I've made it through without another ankle, knee, hamstring, groin, lower back, or shoulder injury. Over the years each one of these places on my body has taken me out of my sport for weeks or months. I feel confident that if I get hurt again, I can fall back on the routines, schedules, techniques, and store of equipment that has enabled me to rehab past injuries. I hope to pass some of this information on to readers in need of support.
This article deals with the sort of injury that I call a career-interrupting injury, or CII for short. These injuries happen rather infrequently in the life of the typical serious athlete, but they are severe enough to require serious effort to make a comeback. Let me try to distinguish this type of injury from other injuries, using skateboarding as the anchoring activity.
Career interrupting injuries defined

A minor injury happens to a skater frequently. These injuries include cuts, contusions, scrapes, bumps, minor sprains, and muscle pulls.
A major injury is rather infrequent and is devastating. Such an injury, like a bad bone break requiring a pin or plate to repair the bone, or a torn tendon or ligament requiring major reconstructive surgery, will almost surely end an athletic career, or interrupt it for years. That's not what I'm covering here.
A career interrupting injury is something that takes you out for a couple of months. Injuries such as muscle pulls in a big muscle, strained tendons or ligaments, a bad sprain, a bone with a bad contusion or hairline fracture (not a break) are all injuries I would place in this category. They are also the kinds of things that have plagued my sports career, so I have considerable experience in dealing with these types of injuries.
I've battled back from a number of these injuries. Whereas some younger skaters probably have had one or two, I've dealth with dozens of these type of setbacks. I don't claim to be a physical therapist or medical person. A lot of this information deals with the right attitude to have about injuries, and common sense that comes only out of painful experience. They are guidelines on how to achieve the kind of durability that I have.

Some observations about coming back from injuries.

Initial response to injury. How the most important period of rehab is the first 24 hours.

Scheduling rehab. Putting more tedium into rehab can make it less tediously long in the long run.

Rehab gear. Bandages, braces, and weights.

Exercise routines. Early stage rehab. Regaining range of motion. Basic low strain exercises.

Repetition exercise routines. Middle to late stage rehab. Use of simple equipment and multiple reps to build leg strength.

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