If you have a pedestrian accident, not only is it an inconvenience in terms of recovery time and finances, but it can also ruin a lot of your passion and hobbies for you. Sometimes, you have to take a break from doing things you like, such as sports, in order to heal. Getting back to them, at the worst, can be hard even after you recover. So just how will you reclaim your love for sports after a pedestrian accident?
Vehicle accidents are considered the eighth leading causes of death worldwide, claiming at least 1.25 million people each year. Almost half these numbers are from what is known the “vulnerable road users” demographic, composed of motorcyclists, cyclists, and pedestrians. If not casualties, survivors of these accidents also mostly end up with serious injuries and even disabilities, as evidenced by 20 to 50 million survivors of these accidents every year.
These numbers, however, don’t imply you can’t go back to sports. Rather, they do indicate that you’re not alone in the road to recovery. Here are some more tips when getting back into sports after an injury:
- Start out slow, and work your way up. Don’t forget that your body will most likely be in a recovery stage even if you get back to a sport you’re familiar with. As such, it’s not bad to rehabilitate yourself and start with the basics first to make sure your body will be able to properly adjust itself. This allows you to gauge the difference between how you played before the accident, and how you play now that it’s passed. This also lets you know what parts of your playing style changed because of your injuries and how you can adjust.
- Stop if it hurts, and don’t overexert. Sometimes, you may have a tendency to just “walk off the pain” and continue playing. However, you should try to distinguish just what is something you can walk off, such as feeling sore, or pain that you have to get checked such as a rough impact. This allows you to more or less gauge if you need to get yourself checked, or if you’re close to having another injury as well.
- Make sure you get yourself checked and rechecked. One of the most crucial aspects of getting back into sports after an accident is to make sure you get yourself checked by a physician and/or a therapist in order to fully understand what happened to your body and the full extent of the things you could do to deal with it properly. Knowing what happened and how to deal with it can mentally prepare you not just to be careful, but to be aware of the circumstances that surrounded your injury and how you can avoid it.
- The right food and rest matters. You wouldn’t be able to get back into sports through sheer willpower and exercise alone. You have to be able to consistently follow through with your diet, your nutrition, and your rest. Since your involvement with sports will likely be during your recovery, making sure your body gets the time to adapt to the sport with good rest and healthy eating habits is key.
Conclusion
You may be wearing your jersey when you participate in your sport, but you’re still a pedestrian outside the court. If you’ve suffered a pedestrian accident, getting back to sports can be difficult with your current therapy, but it’s not impossible. The above tips may hopefully assist you in jumpstarting your return to your game.
