How to Recover FAST From a Sports Injury
Athletes aren’t always known for their patience. The competitive fire burns bright!
That goes for just about everyone who enjoys lots of physical activity, actually—whether you play to defeat the competition, improve your own
personal best, or just stay in shape!
So if you love to run, play basketball, go hiking, or really do any kind of physical activity that requires your feet and ankles, you aren’t going to be too happy about having to stay off your feet for a few weeks (or months) resting after an injury. Like we said, it’s as true for weekend warriors as it is for professionals playing for championships and millions of dollars.
(Dr. Olacio would know—she’s treated people in both groups!)
Fortunately, you have Omega Medical Group (OMG) on your side.
We’re athletes, too. That’s why we work so hard to get athletes back in the game with the lowest possible turnaround time.
How do we do it? Keep reading to find out.
Treatments That Accelerate the Natural Healing Process
At OMG, we’re proud to provide our active patients with some of the most advanced, evidence-based treatment options in the emerging field of regenerative medicine—and in particular, Clarix Flo.
We’ve written about this revolutionary treatment option several times in the past, but here’s a quick refresher:
Clarix Flo is an injection therapy that’s made from healthy, donated amniotic membrane material. There are some awesome benefits to harnessing amniotic tissue for injury healing in athletes. It’s packed with biological factors, proteins, and nutrients that are crucial for tissue repair.
Even better, because amniotic tissue is “immune privileged,” it means that treatments are extremely safe. After 250,000 procedures performed worldwide (and counting), there has never been any report of either tissue rejection or disease transmission from the treatment.
And finally, it just plain works. We know, because we use it in our practice and see the results up close all the time. In some cases, a single injection as part of your treatment plan can cut your overall return timetable from injury in half.
In fact, the amount of time and hassle you save could even be much more than that. Often times, Clarix Flo will be successful when no other mix of conservative treatment options have helped—or in other words, it saves you from either requiring surgery or just suffering indefinitely.
To give you a point of comparison—if you’re an athlete, you’ve probably heard about platelet-rich plasma treatments, or PRP, because it was extremely popular for injured professional athletes in the 90s through the early to mid 00s.
Well, we used to provide PRP treatments at our office, and we stopped because the results with Clarix Flo just flat out blew PRP out of the water.
So know that if you do get Clarix Flo at our office, you’re getting a treatment that is on the cutting edge of the regenerative medicine revolution—something significantly better than what millionaire athletes and celebrities were using just a decade ago.
A Rehab Plan Based on Keeping You Active
Want to really annoy an athlete? Tell them that, for the next six weeks, they can’t do anything. No running. No training. Maybe even no weight bearing.
That kind of prescription will drive anyone crazy, but especially so if you’re used to vigorous activity!
Fortunately, at OMG “rest” is something of a dirty word.
Now, don’t get us wrong. Rest is a crucial part of training, and also often part of the recovery process.
But there are also downsides to rest, too. For example, too much time off your feet means your fitness, flexibility, and performance all slide due to lack of maintenance. That makes it more difficult and time-consuming to get back into game shape.
That’s why at OMG, we balance necessary, healing rest with a treatment plan focused on keeping you as active as possible throughout every stage of recovery.
What does that look like?
Well, for starters, we work closely with physical therapists in the area who cater to recovering athletes, with advanced technology like the AlterG anti-gravity treadmill.
This powerful rehab tool uses a chamber of pressurized air to reduce the force of gravity on your feet and ankles by up to 80 percent. Less weight means significantly lower impacts on recovering tissues and joints, which means you can start running again much earlier without risk of re-aggravating your injury.
Because the system is highly adjustable, your physical therapist can gradually increase the effective weight as your injury heals, too.
And on our end, we always take the time to personalize our treatment plans and rehab guidelines based on your individual needs.
Besides regenerative medicine, that might also include making sure you get a flexible, sturdy pair of total contact custom orthotics that supports and stabilizes your feet while you play—without holding back your performance. It will also include recommendations for when and how you can return to certain athletic activities, or how you can modify your training routine to reduce pain and strain on your feet and ankles.
We’ll Get You Back On Your Feet
In short, more advanced treatment options and a more activity-focused plan for recovery and rehabilitation make a tremendous combination for athletes:
- Your injury heals faster
- You can return to activity and push yourself harder at an earlier stage of the healing process
- As a result, your physical condition doesn’t decline as much while you’re on the mend, and you can get yourself back into game shape a lot sooner than you otherwise could.
Have you recently suffered a major “OMG” on the playing field? If so, you need Omega Medical Group on your team today. To schedule an appointment with Dr. Olacio, please call (305) 514-0404 right now, or simply fill out our handy request form online to have one of our trained staff members reach out to you.