Understanding Sprains + Strains and How Attain Physical Therapy Can Help

Sprains describe injuries to ligaments such as rolling your ankle.

Strains describe injuries to muscles or tendons such as pulling a hamstring.

These injuries can range from mild to severe and can significantly impact your ability to perform daily activities or participate in sports.

Sprains and strains usually occur from a singular moment in time where there is sudden, sharp pain with the following symptoms:

Sprains and strains can occur in various parts of the body, but some of the most common types include:some text

Ankle Sprains: Often caused by rolling or twisting the ankle causing the ligament to stretch too far causing pain and possible looseness.
Knee Sprains: Often affects the ACL, PCL, MCL, or LCL during athletic activity BUT can even occur with walking and having a sudden twist or impact.
Wrist Sprains: Typically occur when a person falls onto an outstretched hand or lifts something too heavy or too awkwardly.
Hamstring Strains: Often caused by agility activities with sudden starts, stops, or changes in direction resulting in sudden, sharp pain with a possible pop to the back of the thigh.
Calf Strains: Often resulting from sudden pushing-off movements or overstretching that overloads the calf muscle.
Back Strains: Often due to lifting heavy objects improperly or repeated lifting with poor mechanics

1. Start with an Evaluation

Evaluation and Assessment: Physical therapists will look at the injury to determine the level of sprain or strain so they can treat accordingly without causing further harm or inhibiting recovery. They will also investigate beyond the area of injury to assess possible reasons why the injury happened such as a weakness in the hips causing compensation at the ankle.some text
- Based on findings, we can recommend if you need an X-ray or an MRI.
Personalized Treatment Plan: Based on the evaluation, a customized treatment plan is developed to address your unique needs and goals, considering the nature of your injury.

2. What To Do and What NOT To Do:

The majority of the time following an injury: motion is lotion. Keep moving, walking, and performing necessary activities of daily living.
At Attain, we focus on the most recent research for our decisions and research has shown that the majority of the time, icing is NOT beneficial to recovery after a strain or sprain. Research now says that incorporating same day movement, same day weight bearing, and early motion/activation with appropriate guidance from a healthcare professional can allow quicker recovery and quicker symptom relief.

3. Promoting Healing

Red Light Therapy: At Attain, we use Red Light Therapy to assist with treating inflammation. We only use research based units that produce a red light at a specific lumen to assist the cells create more energy required to enhance the healing process, increase blood flow, and reduce oxidative stress.
Manual Therapy: Hands-on techniques, including massage, joint mobilization, and soft tissue manipulation, help relieve pain, improve circulation, and enhance tissue mobility.

4. Restoring Mobility

Stretching Exercises: Specific stretches to improve flexibility and reduce muscle tension around the affected area allowing quicker return to pre-injury muscle length
Range of Motion Exercises: Gentle mobility exercises, performed early in recovery, help restore movement and reduce stiffness in the joints and muscles faster.

5. Improving Strength

Strengthening Exercises: Targeted exercises to build strength in the muscles that support the injured area and assist with recovering strength and stability.
Progressive Resistance Training: Gradually increasing resistance to build strength as tolerated that MAY cause minimal pain to allow necessary activation for quicker recovery to being pain free. If exercises hide from pain and aren’t stimulating muscle recovery then things may never improve.

6. Enhancing Function

Functional Training: Exercises and activities designed to mimic daily tasks and improve functional abilities, helping you regain independence and confidence in the daily movements you use for your life.
Walking and Posture Training: Teaching proper walking patterns and postural alignment to reduce strain on injured areas and promote better body mechanics.

7. Injury Prevention Education

Education on Injury Prevention: Providing information on how to prevent future sprains and strains by addressing correction of any compensation patterns found during the evaluation.
Holistic Awareness: We want to help you reduce risk of injury in all ways such as encouraging proper nutrition, proper rest, proper awareness of what you should and shouldn’t do during physical activity.

We understand that effective treatment of sprains and strains includes careful and appropriate loading to the joint.

If you are experiencing sprains + strains, don’t wait to seek help. Contact Attain Physical Therapy today to schedule your initial evaluation and take the first step towards a pain-free life.