Soft tisue injuries

I'm learning a lot about injuries, the hard way... Yeap, I fell again. I didn't skate last Monday as kids were out of school and on those days it gets too crowded. So I skated Tuesday, and it was almost empty sessions and I got excited and I went for it, rushed the damn 3-turns pattern for Pre-Juvenile MITF test and fell on an forward inside 3-turn, not even a backward one! I don't skate on Saturday and Sunday and I always feel the need to take it easy on Monday, to work on basics (edges, posture, pleasure into ice and just then increase the speed). I'm so angry at myself for not doing this on Tuesday, after 3 consecutive days of not skating.

It is always emphasized by coaches that you have to learn how to fall. And I was always complimented that I fall "properly". Well, not anymore, but only on the left side, the side I hurt last year! I fall nice and easy on the healthy side, I instinctively bend the knees to lower and roll on my side as I fall. And on the bad side I tense up and fall like a log!

It was in March of the last year when I strain the tendon connecting the abductor muscle to the hip for a tiny but a little twisted fall. It was hurting only in a certain spot, on certain positions and only on ice... So I haven't taken it seriously. Bad idea, because that caused the muscles around the hip to compensate and get strained themselves. I was feeling better in few long months. Then I fell heavily in the summer, then in the fall, in December and now. All these falls were not strains, just muscle (glutes) bruises and maybe bone bruise. And each fall took less time to stop bothering me.

So, what I've learn!

Soft tissue injuries are:
- sprains: stretching or tearing of a ligament
- strains: stretching or tearing of a tendon or muscle
- bruising (contusion): the crush of underlying muscle fibers and connective tissue from a fall or hard contact
- tendonitis: inflammation of the tendons from overuse

For the mild injuries the symptoms are paint, inflammation with or without swelling, weakness of the muscle. More serious injuries have to be seen by a doctor.

The treatment starts with REST! If there is pain and inflammations, surely there is muscle weakness to, and you have to rest for 24,48 hours. Also apply ICE to reduce the inflammation and anti inflammatory medication (ibuprofen, arnica cream on the spot)... There is the famous advice to RICE (Rest, Ice, Compress and Elevate).  As the pain and inflammation subsides, it is safe to go back to light activity. But the hurt area needs to be PROTECTED from immediate re injury (padding and safe activities) and STRENGTHEN (with specific exercises, maybe physical therapy)as it was weekend by the injury. I've also learned that you shouldn't initially roll or massage a bruised muscle. You have to let the muscle fiber connections restore.

I'll add to these soft tissue injuries muscle soreness after working out. There is pain and inflammation, right? So I feel the muscle don't function optimally and we should take it easier until they heal. I had sore muscles for months... It ended up that I had knots in my IT band. Those need to be massaged out. Also helping with muscle soreness is hydration, warming up prior and stretching after the work out and rolling.

I'm a pro now, right? After the last Tuesday fall I rested, iced, I didn't skate and rested some more (luckily there was lot's of skating on TV to watch), did glutes exercises and then skated twice very lightly. Then I rested again as the rink closed for the big Midwest polar vortex freeze... I'll see when I'll go back to regular activity for sure, but for now I feel great and I think this is the right way to approach injuries. I may be back to regular activity after 10 days instead of struggling for months.

Falling and injuries

Falling in figure skating is... inevitable. But you cannot be afraid of falling if you want to progress in skating, because you would concentrate on not falling instead of learning new skills. Tell that to an adult figure skater! Adults are more aware of the danger of falling than children and afraid of the possibility of injury.I fall mostly when I learn or correct something, like a jump or the posture. But I also fall because somebody crosses my way or I just catch something in the ice. Some days I fall few times, but I also have weeks when I don't fall at all.

Good news, falling on ice is not like falling on concrete. The fact that you are sliding after the fall, makes the force with which you hit the ground dissipate across the surface. So falling on ice while figure skating doesn't always hurt and doesn't automatically mean injury.

There is a "proper" way of falling. I was taught in my first beginner group class, first off-ice and then on ice, to fall on the lateral part of the buttock and  roll on the side, similar with how you would fall in martial art. My most important points are trying not to break the fall with my hands as wrists are sensitive, not to fall on my tail bone and not to hit the ice with my head. All this applies when you fall backwards or to the side, falling forward while rare for me ,it's harder to save, I use my forearms to break it, again not my hands, and usually I end up with blue knees.

There is also a proper way to get up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oE5Tn79U6o

If you are prone to fall on a particular body part, you can use pads or guards, wrist guards, knee pads, hip and tailbone silicone or foam pads, a thick head band.

My worst fall was from just standing on ice and looking down at my skates, then, as I looked up, I lost my balance and I fell straight down on my left wrist. While it wasn't broken, it was tender for months. The next one was while doing backward crossovers and  playing with leaning more into the circle I lost an edge and I fell kind of forward but at an angle. I used my arm to break the fall and my shoulder was sore for few days but I hit the inner side of one knee hard. It also felt like I twisted the knee. Again, nothing serious but it took probably a month to heal completely. 

A skating  injury worth mentioning is the overuse injury. That happened to my left ankle because of a series of technical mistakes (not transferring the weight but picking laterally on the ballet jump, stopping the back spin with a lateral hit of the toe pick, then pre-rotating the Salchow on the toe pick...). I started to hurt even when spinning. I stopped doing all those moves but I kept skating and that's when I started ice dancing.

Almost every figure skater I know has a story about falling... off ice... like ice in the parking lot, in the house catching the rug corner... and me.. I fell on the slippery laundry floor. I had the basket full of clothing in my arms and I didn't se the floor was wet. It wasn't a terrible fall I though, but it bothers me for a month now! It seams that I pulled a muscle. As the pain wasn't so bad, even if I felt I didn't have my usual muscle power, I continued skating for a week. It was not only that that particular spot wasn't healing but everything around started to hurt, down to the ankle! I learnt that that is called overcompensation. So I cancelled my lessons, took one week break, while icing, rolling and lightly stretching. I'm determined to let it heal completely before starting to train (push) again. Last 2 weeks I skated very lightly and just 3 days.