In sports, there at a lot of types of injury. You can twist your ankle running, strain your knee playing, or jam your finger catching a ball. Wrists get sprained catching you when you fall. Almost any joint can take damage if you find yourself turning at an unexpected angle. However, there is one kind of sports injury that is overwhelmingly common but almost never discussed: friction burns.
Playing sports usually involves a reasonable amount of equipment. Wearing gear like padding, braces, or helmets doesn’t always prevent damage as well. The padding a football or hockey player wears, for instance, must be strapped on. While the padding may protect them from impact damage, it can still chafe at the straps. You can even get friction burns from your shoes rubbing ever so slightly against your heel or ankle. You can also get friction burns from actions like sliding home base or taking an accidental nose dive into the turf.
The majority of the pain and discomfort of a friction burn comes from heat which. This is created by the friction itself, just like when you rub your hands together and they get hot.
Most friction burns come with two aspects: the skin damage and the burn itself caused by friction. The scrape will need to be kept clean, free of infection, and bandaged. The burn will need to be kept cool with access to air flow, while protected from further friction damage.
Most friction burns come with some raw skin from the rough irritation. Indeed, some come with a nasty shallow scrape that bleeds slowly for days making treatment tricky. Start immediate treatment by cleaning the wound with antibacterial ointment or spray to kill anything that may already be present.
Hold the damaged area under cold water. If this is too difficult, soak it in cold water or use a cold wet washcloth to continually cool the area. This step is necessary because you are dealing with a burn. The longer your skin stays hot, the worse the burn becomes, and it will take a lot more time to heal. Maintain the cold treatment for about ten to thirty minutes depending on how bad it is and if the pain eventually ebbs.
Note: Do not use ice, ice water, or water cold enough to be icy as this can make the burn worse.
Your next biggest concern should be keeping the skin damage free from infection. Keep the wound clean and slathered in antiseptic until the scrape or skin abrasions close up and heal normally. If you start seeing puss blisters forming or if your clear scab material turns yellow, you’ve gotten infected anyway and need to seek medical attention immediately.
Here’s where you decide whether to wear a bandage during recovery. The best way to heal a carpet burn is in the open air by forming a scab, but this isn’t always an option. There are three conditions that will determine your choice here. First, can your wound form a scab? If you can, skip the bandage, but if you can’t, you’ll need the protection. However, if the wound is under your clothes, you’ll need to loosely tape a soft bandage over the area to protect your tender skin from further damage caused by friction. Contrarily, if the damage was caused by gear like a shoe or padding strap, you’ll need to bandage it and possibly add lubricating ointment before getting back to work.
As the wound heals, keep the burn and abrasion safe from any additional friction, impact, or scraping damage as you reverse the healing process. Check the wound and re-apply antiseptic at least once a day and loosely rebandage so the injury can breathe. Eventually, the redness and tenderness will fade, the burn will heal, and you’ll be ready to try again with a little more care.
Now that we’ve covered how to deal with your most recent friction burn, let’s talk about how to prevent them altogether. Because friction burns are so common among athletes, there are also half a dozen different ways to deal with them as long as you catch the signs early. If your skin is getting rubbed raw by a strap or shoe, don’t wait for it to become a friction burn, look into soft stick-on pads, lubricating ointment, chalk, and foot powder as ways to get back into the activities you love without worrying about another friction burn in the future.
For more tips, news, and information about fitness and recovery in the 3 Elements Lifestyle, contact us today!
David Michael Gilbertson is the founder and president of 3 Elements Lifestyle, LLC., a Fitness and Weight Loss company that specializes in YOU!. With more than 15 years of experience owning, operating and managing clubs of all sizes, David lectures, delivers seminars and gives workshops on the practical skills required to successfully help you with your health and fitness goals. David also helps you build the teamwork, management, and training necessary to open your own fitness center. For more information on Licensing and Consulting Services visit his website at: www.3elementslifestyle.com or email at daveg@3elementslifestyle.com or call (805) 499-3030.
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