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Sports Injury Management Do No HARM

You often hear about avoiding H.A.R.M. to sports related injuries.

H.A.R.M is an acronym that stands for things to AVOID:

Avoid Heat

Adding heat or heating elements such as electrical heatpacks or deep heat creams can cause prolonged bleeding (heat causes vasodilation and increased circulation) and if there is open wounds, it may cause infections too.

Avoid Alcohol, as alcohol

  • can cause increased internal increased circulation and may prolong swelling
  • can cause more aggravations of injury or re-injury due to alcohol related injuries

Avoid Running

If you have an injury, do not participate in any running/jogging activities or exercises as

  • running can cause the injury to be aggravated or worsen if there any falls
  • running can open up freshly-injured wounds

Avoid Massage For Now

During the first 72 hours of a sports or orthopedic injury, we don't recommend you massage the injured area or injury as it can

  • aggravate the injury
  • increase swelling
  • cause more bleeding

Refer to our RICER method to sports injury method too.