Hi, I'm Professor Patricia Hume and I'm a sports scientist. So, I work with Olympic athletes right through to small children. When you have a sprain or a
strain, [music] the great news is that your body is going to naturally heal.
So, it's really important in the first few days to make sure that you don't [music] induce extra harm. A lot of things that people think they should do
actually slow down their recovery. So, here's some things that you could do.
We don't want heat and we don't want massage. So icing is what people have traditionally done and it's okay in the short [music] term because it helps numb
the pain. But you don't want to do it for more than 15 minutes at [music] a time and you want to put a tea towel in between the ice pack and your limb
because you don't want to get freezer burn on your limb. The reason why we don't continue to use icing is [music] it because it constricts the blood
vessels and it stops the blood flowing to where we [music] need it.
So pain-free movement like walking, cycling or [music] swimming, that's going to improve your mobility, improve
your blood circulation, and it will improve your recovery. then progress back to your sport or to work or physical activity that you enjoy.
Your lifestyle choices are really important because that can help you recover or affect your recovery. [music]
So, if you vape or smoke, if you can minimize that, [music] that enables us to get better oxygen to your body site and to improve your recovery.
So having a positive mindset is really important because [music] it helps you relax and you can focus on what you need to do to be able to recover. When you
have a sprain or strain, [music] it's really important if you're unsure, go see your GP or physio. And there's really helpful self-care advice on the
Healthify website. This will help you get [music] back to what matters sooner.