Chronic Injuries: Avoidance and Rehabilitation 

See "Surf Survival" for pertinent information


All athletes look for effective methods of dealing with injury.
Some of the most frustrating injuries come from overuse.

People that do seek medical attention may receive less than optimal care because of a specialist’s unfamiliarity with unique sports and environmental injuries or the athlete/waterman's unfamiliarity with medical specialties. Eastern therapies are quite effective the majority of the time with Yoga, Qi Gong and Tibetan Rites followed by the world's best athletes. A surfer who has been educated about surfing medicine may be more able to identify appropriate and inappropriate treatments in both Eastern and Western medicine.

Sprains and Strains

Warm-ups and cool downs (click on Integrated Qi Gong Fire and Water links above) prevent sprains and strains when properly done by warming up muscles and incresing joint viscoelasticity. Many professional athletes associated with Waves of Health LLC incorporate these practices into their training. 

Many athletes will begin taking ibuprofen or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicines to deal with sprain and strain type pain. This may end up being counterproductive as some medicines such as ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) and celecoxib (Celebrex) may increase scar tissue formation. Other medicines, such as piroxicam and meloxicam may be beneficial in early treatment of injuries and corticosteroids have shown modest benefit in aiding muscle healing but require a doctor’s prescription and can cause digestive, hematologic and cardiovascular issues. 

To bypass the prescription process, or by a preference for “natural” therapies, research has gone into noni, aloe, boswellin and curcumin, bromelian and papain compounds derived from aloe, rice, pineapple and papaya respectively among other remedies. Whereas intense medical research and clinical trials of prescription medicines drives the use of medicines such as piroxicam and meloxicam, positive testimonials and basic science research often drives the use of supplements. The most important factor is if it actually works!

Many traditional complementary and alternative therapies popular among surfers including friction massage, acupressure, acupuncture, cupping (pinpricks and suction to acupressure points) have beneficial effects in accelerating healing time of overuse injuries. So much so, in fact, that they are covered under most workman's compensation and no-fault insurance programs (those insurance programs that save money when you are actually better and want you to get better faster!)

Perhaps the most important factors in healing and preventing chronic overuse injuries are postural stability and proper nutrition. Important and oft-neglected core shoulder girdle muscles such as serratus anterior, mid- and low-trapezius can influence the probability of a shoulder strain and rotator cuff tear, a malady that will affect a majority of athletes over a lifetime. Core hip girdle muscles such as gluteus medius often atrophy with our crooked and sedentary lifestyle and loss of their function can contribute to maladies such as patellar tendinitis, patellofemoral pain syndrome, arthritis as well as knee and ankle sprains. Posture garments and core retraining exercises with proper equipment and supervision can help fix this.