Damage limitation

While it's virtually impossible to prevent injuries there are practical ways to minimise their impact and speed the recovery process.

Getting injured doing something you love is no fun at all but what makes it worse is being kept away from being able to race. Injuries are part and parcel of sport and some sports are more prone to dishing out injuries than others.

Motocross riders must be well up there on the list of most injured sportsmen and I often have calls from riders I've been training to tell me of their latest broken bone or dislocation.

Injuries are most often caused by crashes - and preventing crashes is clearly hard to do without using tired cliches like 'slow down' or 'ride within your limits'. I'm not your mum and I want you to win too! But there are more realistic ways to reduce the risk.

Going to the line without warming up properly is asking for trouble. If you're not warmed up then the range of motion of joints is reduced and this will increase the chance of dislocating, for example, a shoulder.

Riding when tired is another big cause of crashes. Fatigue greatly affects concentration but fatigue is part and parcel of racing so prepare for it - you know what you're going to be up against so do the appropriate training! If you're practising try taking more frequent breaks for drinks as you will ultimately be able to go for longer and feel fresher.

There is one rider who is said to be very lucky when it comes to injuries and that's Ricky Carmichael. He hasn't missed an AMA National in years and once managed to hold out until the end of a season before going under the knife to repair a damaged cruciate ligament. He then bounced back even stronger than before.

He may indeed be lucky but I think to a certain extent you make your own luck and pure strength and fitness keeps him in control where others wouldn't have the energy to hang on.

Building up muscle strength therefore does go towards preventing injury and also goes a long way to stabilising the joint it acts upon. This increased joint stability helps resist dislocations and also hyper extensions.

Recovery from injuries is something we all want to do faster, more effectively and with as little pain as possible. Friends re-runs are all well and good but couch time is never fun.

The first thing to do when injured is follow the simple RICE principle - Rest immediately, Ice the injured site, put Compression onto the area with strapping and Elevate. This will help with pain and swelling and if done promptly will help reduce injury time.

Try to see a professional as soon as possible as quick diagnosis is one of the best ways to treat an injury correctly. Ignoring it and just moaning about the discomfort won't help anyone and could lengthen recovery time.

Upper body injuries such as A/C separations, shoulder dislocations and broken wrists all require sufficient time of immobilisation. However, there is nothing to stop you continuing to remain active and doing some training. It is only the injury that needs to be rested. Light cardio work on a stationary bike or light running are very effective ways to keep your fitness from taking a dive. With these injuries it is important to regain a good range of motion about the joint and build muscle strength around it.

It is important to take advice from your doctor but on many occasions a GP's treatment protocol will be very conservative so a sports injury specialist would be a good port of call.

Training can commence early and will help promote recovery without further damaging the injury, getting you back on the bike as soon as possible. Gradual build up is important and starting off, for example, with elastic exercise band exercises and moving on to light dog bone free weights will help develop the surrounding muscles that support and stabilise the joint.

You can also use this time to work on strength for other areas - lower body and core stability are both areas that could be trained if you have upper extremity injury and improved to levels better than before the injury.

For lower extremity injuries it is harder to maintain general cardio fitness. Casts obviously have great limiting factors but if you are not in a cast, weight bearing exercises that offer little joint stress will help promote recovery. Rowing machines, swimming (or even aqua walking/running) and stationary bikes will increase blood flow to the area, build muscular strength and increase some weight bearing which is an important phase in recovery.

You must clearly take advice from your doctor but try to see a sports injury specialist as they will have a much better understanding of your needs. In an age where pins are inserted into bones and casts may even be left off, recovery time is reduced. As long as you don't do anything risky that might cause a fall or is too high intensity too early you can be active soon after injury.

As an example, for a knee injury the strengthening of the leg muscles is important to stabilise and protect the joint. And improving this strength from what it was before the injury will also help prevent re-occurrence of the injury.

Also focus on building up proprioceptive awareness again. This is the knowledge of what the limb is doing with regard to position, joint angle etc and although this is often good when riding and training an injury lay off will reduce this awareness and this must be regained. Balance boards, single leg squats and balance exercises with your eyes shut will greatly help this. Lay off running but build strength through weights work, cycling and the cross trainer machine.

You can monitor progress by comparing the results of each exercise between the injured and non-injured leg. Do not try to match the non-injured limb but gradually note improvements. As you recover from the injury you can see how fit and recovered you are by the performance percentage compared to the non-injured limb. Once up to around 80 per cent you can start to reintroduce your normal exercises.

If you are unfortunate to suffer an injury then once swelling and pain have subsided, gradual light work can begin. Keeping active while protecting the injured limb or joint will keep your cardio fitness good, motivation up and reduce the worry that the hard work of before the injury was wasted.

Finding ways to speed up your recovery are not only a physical benefit but also a mental boost as you won't feel so helpless. Gyms often have exercise classes that are graded for ability or fitness. Going to an entry level class would help in rehab and use some of the weights machines to gain range of motion before moving on to the free weights to build more strength and stability.

As with any injury please do seek medical help first and follow the doctor's guidelines. And ask them questions so you get a good understanding and use this advice to help your recovery.

Thanks to Virgin Active Health Clubs - for more information or to find your nearest Virgin Active Health Club go to www.virginactive.co.uk or call 08451 304747.