Functional Rehab

11-5-09

Consequences of Injury & Basic Concepts of Rehab

The first consequence that come with injury is inactivity. This will lead to atrophy of type II fibers along with loss of endurance and co-ordination. Essentially, all those combined will lead to a detraining effect on the athlete. The next idea we need to look at is immobilisation for the injured area. We already know it will have an affect on muscle with atrophy but also has effects on bone, ligament, joint and general fitness. According to Wolffe's law,bone in a healthy person or animal will adapt to the loads it is placed under. If loading on a particular bone increases, the bone will remodel itself over time to become stronger to resist that sort of loading. But for our case we will look at the converse of that law: if the loading on a bone decreases, the bone will become weaker due to turnover, it is less metabolically costly to maintain and there is no stimulus for continued remodeling that is required to maintain bone mass. So basically, if your body doesn't need to use energy it won't. As for the joint, we see a loss of compression which in turn leads to a loss of lubrication and degeneration. The reason for this is because the articular cartilage is deprived of nutrients. Ligaments become weaker also because of Wolffe's law. Full remodeling of ligaments can take up to 12 months. Finally, it obviously will have an effect on our cardiovascular fitness. This will cause an increase in rested Heart Rate and stroke volume decrease.

Now going onto basics concepts of a rehab program. The aims of a rehab program provide an optimal environment for injury to heal. Rehab can also prevent recurrence of injury. Three basic goals of a rehab program:
1. restore function
2. prevent re-injury
3. correct any causative factors.