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Fitness Friday: Injured? How to speed up recovery

December 15, 2011

*Editor's note: Every week my colleague Ron Kaspriske, Golf Digest Fitness Editor, presents Fitness Friday on the Instruction Blog. He gives you a health and fitness tip or an exercise or stretch to get your body warmed up for the weekend. This week, he gives you tips for getting back to the golf course after an injury. Look for Saturday Morning Tip tomorrow, and remember to follow me on Twitter: @RogerSchiffman

Roger Schiffman

Managing Editor

Golf Digest*

__Here's Ron:__Play golf long enough and you're going to get hurt. That's the sobering reality of playing a sport that the body isn't designed to play. The twisting and torquing of the body and the repetitive impact of hitting the ground take their toll on your joints, muscles and tendons.

So what do you do when you suffer from joint inflammation, small muscle tears and/or tendon strains? Your first options for a speedy recovery are always going to be rest, ice and heat.

The first part is easy--rest. It's like the old Marx Brothers joke about the guy who tells his doctor that it hurts when he "does this." And the doc says, "Then stop doing that." It's actually good advice. Trying to "play hurt" as they do in the NFL will likely make an easily correctable problem turn into a much bigger issue. So shut it down for a while.

The second part of the equation is a little trickier. Heat and ice are both proven methods to help alleviate pain and heal faster, but most people don't know which one to use and when. In January's Golf Digest, I delve into this topic. To find out when and how to use ice and heat, click on the link here.

*Ron Kaspriske

Fitness Editor

Golf Digest *