Swelling Got You Down? 3 Smart Ways to Speed Up Injury Recovery

If you've injured a body part and there's a significant amount of swelling, the pressure of the excess fluid in the area can create a pulsating/throbby pain at rest or whenever you move the body part. Sometimes this fluid buildup makes it harder to activate the muscles in the area, which can contribute to a feeling of weakness or lack of confidence when you're going about your daily life. Instead of just waiting for the tissue healing timeline to take its course, here are some ways you can optimize the process: 

3 tips for swelling:

1. Frequent non-painful movement. Perform this in ranges of motion you can tolerate. 

2. Compression/light massage towards the heart

3. Kinesio Taping to facilitate lymphatic drainage. 

   
   

One of the worst things you can do for a swollen area is prolonged bed rest. As an example, if you injured your knee and there's a visible amount of swelling, resting it temporarily may be okay, but the decision to not move the knee at all typically makes the knee stiffer and prolongs the healing process. In this scenario, you can think of the fluid in your knee as a river. You want the fluid to be rushing through to push out all of the unneeded materials and bring in the materials that promote healing.

Keeping your knee stagnant prevents this turnover from happening as efficiently. Moreover, you need to utilize the muscles around the knee to optimize their function once the swelling resolves. There's a saying, "use it or lose it", that applies here. This isn't to say that your muscles will magically disappear if you choose not to use them, but you should expect there to be some noticeable amount of muscle atrophy and difficulty activating the muscles if you choose not to use them for an extended period of time. In a nutshell, non-painful movement in your tolerated ranges will help you in the moment and prepare you for the future once the swelling subsides.

The lymphatic system and swelling go hand in hand. The better the lymphatic drainage is, the less swelling there is. Light compression garments or using your hands to gently massage in the direction towards the heart can be helpful. Keep in mind, it's a gentle (not an aggressive) massage. You want to massage towards your heart, so if your knee is swollen, you want to massage from below the knee to above the knee. If your ankle is swollen, you want to massage from your foot towards your shin.

Kinesio Tape can also be helpful with optimizing the lymphatic drainage, which we demonstrated how to do in the video linked above. Although the tape may not feel like it'll do much, the tension of the tape can help create a gentle lift on the skin to facilitate the flow of the lymphatic drainage.

We hope this helps and remember, we heal smarter, not harder.

Which of these swelling management tips have you tried before?

• 0%Frequent, non-painful movement
• 0%Compression/light massage
• 0%Kinesio Taping
• 0%None of the above

You can vote for more than one answer.