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(Rehabilitation programme for an athlete who is suffering from mild shin splints, their main sport is long distance running. Their usual training sessions include bleep tests and hill sprints)Treatment: Immediate treatment for shin splints is to stop all intense exercise, such as running and sharp movements. The main focus on immediate treatment is rest, this is crucial to enable the damaged muscles and ligaments to be able to heal efficiently without causing further damage leading to more pain. The athlete suffering from shin splints will be in a large amount of pain, which will feel dull and ache. To help this, the athlete should take pain killers to ease the pain. Another way of reducing the pain levels is to use ice on the affected area. The athlete will need to use something straight from the freezer such as a bag of peas or a medical ice pack. To avoid an ice blister, the item will need to be wrapped in a thin towel, still allowing the cold to be felt. Using ice will help to almost numb the affected area, meaning that pain levels decrease. Although this method helps to manage pain, it shouldn’t be done over the suggested amount of time. Using ice on an damaged area for too long, this is because it reduces the blood flow, meaning that less red blood cells reach the damaged ligaments and muscles, so then they heal slower. The recommended time for using ice on shin splints is for 10 minutes every 2 hours. Besides the ice method, there isn’t anything else to treat the shin splints other than rest. Following this treatment should help to heal the injury within 4 weeks. If the area is still suffering from a dull aching pain, the athlete will need to visit a professional to assess the injury further. Rehabilitation: The rehabilitation programme that I created for someone suffering from mild shin splints was split into 4 different weeks. Each week is designed to gradually heal the damaged area without pain, whilst doing exercises that push the ligaments back to their original strength. The first week of the programme mainly focuses on resting the shin or shins affected to help reduce the pain. In the first few days of the injury I added ice treatment to my programme so that the athlete had a quick pain relief method that also reduces swelling and inflammation. Once the athlete has rested and has followed the planned ice method, I added low intensity exercises to the programme to begin the re-strengthening process. The exercises I chose for the first week were low intensity squats and aqua aerobics. Low intensity squats were given with the instruction of holding onto a chair or counter top for supported. This activity will have a low amount of reps due to it possible being painful. I chose aqua aerobics due to the water making exercises much more gentle and free flowing, avoiding sharp and sudden movements. The exercises in the pool involve slow jogging on the spot and walking up and down the pool until tired. This will help to begin to strengthen the ligaments that have been damaged. Doing exercises on a hard floor before the injury has begun to heal could easily lead to it become worse, this is why it is important to avoid hard solid floors that created a lot of shock to the lower legs. The second week of my programme mainly consisted of aqua aerobics and treadmill walks. Walking on a treadmill at a slow pace and low gradient should be almost pain free but a challenge. Do so will help to slowly make the ligaments and muscles surrounding the shin bone stronger. At the end of this week there will be one rest day. In week three, the exercises will become harder compared to the second week. Gradually increasing the intensity means that the muscles are constantly becoming stronger because they are working a bit harder each time. If exercises weren’t followed or stayed at the same intensity, the healing process would be much longer and the area may not heal properly. Likewise, if the exercises given were too difficult and progressed to quickly, the area would become more painful and wouldn’t heal. Therefore, week three includes slightly harder exercises, without pushing the athlete too far. The exercises chosen were more aqua aerobics, but this week with more reps and for a longer period of time. The treadmill exercises also become longer, walking for a time of 30 minutes with a slight gradient and walking at a fast walking pace. By week four, the athlete should be pain free, meaning they are able to jog and run in straight lines without feeling any pain in the lower legs. Although the athlete should now be able to run, it is advised that they avoid sharp quick movements for a further 2 weeks, such as jumping, leaping and twisting. These movements are often the cause of shin splints so it is important to avoid these movements after an injury to avoid it reoccurring. It is also strongly advised that the athlete changes their footwear if they weren’t previously suitable for long distance running. This is because they need well-padded good quality trainers to absorb some of the shock whilst they run.Methods to improve lost range of motion: Due to the affected areas having around a weeks’ worth of rest, there may become a lost range of motion. To get the range of motion back to normal there are stretches that an athlete can follow. To stretch the lower calf muscles, the athlete could stand against a wall, then lift their toes up ten times. They could also do a wall sit which would stretch their lower shin. Stretching the lower calf will help to gradually strengthen the damaged muscles.Psychology: It is important that the athlete has both short term and long term goals to work towards throughout their injury. If the injury means they will need to have a long rehabilitation programme, the athlete may begin to have psychological side effects such as depression and anger. Setting goals will help the programme to feel achievable instead of long and unrealistic. Short term goals could include; follow the first week of the rehabilitation programme, follow the ice method fully, do some upper body exercises etc. Long term goals could include; reaching the end of the four-week programme without giving up, do a half marathon once the injury has fully recovered etc. Setting goals will help the athlete to feel motivation and encouraged. Goals can be set by both the athlete and a professional. Reaching short term goals throughout the programme will help the athlete to try and achieve the next goal set. Achieving long term goals will help the athlete to deal with the injury in the future if it reoccurs and it will also give them motivation to push themselves further in the sport they play. Record: When leading someone’s rehabilitation programme, a record will need to be kept so that their progress can be monitored. They injury will need to be closely monitored in the first week of the injury happening because this is when the healing process begins. At the start of the programme, the professional designing the programme will need to know if the athlete has any medical conditions that may affect the programme that is going to be planned, such as heart problems, pregnancy, asthma etc. They will also need to know if the athlete has any allergies, such as painkillers, plasters, creams etc. One of the first questions that should be asked is if the injury has happened before or whether it is a reoccurring problem. If the injury has never happened before, the athlete will be less aware of what the rehabilitation programme will consist of and they may need extra care and explanation. For each week, a record of the athlete’s progression will need to be made, this is important because if progression slows down or comes to a stop, there will need to be alterations to the programme to ensure the athlete recovers from their injury. ................
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