If you have been through intense obstacle course racing (OCR) training for quite some time now, you may have experienced several niggles or minor injuries here and there.
Nothing a tab of Tylenol won’t fix! But you will have to admit that there are certain injuries that require more than just good old-fashioned painkillers.
Sure enough, serious injuries can happen while you are participating in an OCR and, while you cannot know for sure if you will ever experience one, it is important that you know how to respond to serious injuries during your routine. Not only can you apply these tips on yourself, but you can also apply them to others.
Here is a list of three serious workout injuries that could happen in an OCR or endurance training session, and how you can treat them.
1. Sprained Ankle
Nothing can be more debilitating than a sprained ankle. For sure, this has been touted as one of the most common injuries, especially when you are climbing up walls and attempting to make a safe landing. Sprained ankles typically happen to people with poor muscle and joint health and they can be a recurring burden that affects your performance in an OCR.
A sprained ankle usually takes weeks to recover. Otherwise, you may want to see a medical professional if your ankle problem is only getting worse. In the meantime, you can relieve the pain by not moving your ankle too much and have it elevated. If the swelling continues, then you might want to grab an ice pack!
2. Dislocated Shoulder
While crawling under barbed wire, you may put yourself at risk of a dislocated shoulder. This unnerving, yet fairly common, workout injury involves the upper arm bone slipping from its socket, causing the bone to protrude.
Popping back this back into place is not a simple task that just anyone can successfully perform. If you are not yet sure how to treat such an injury, it is best that you focus more on applying first aid measures. The first thing you will have to do is apply a cold compress on the area of the swelling. After that, you can ask a trained first aider to fix a sling and take you to a medical professional who can re-position your shoulder – usually with the aid of some analgesic!
3. Traumatic Dental Injuries
Whether you are running up a steep incline or climbing up a 15-foot rope, you may not be spared from serious dental injuries. Of all the injuries you have to suffer, a chipped or loose tooth is not exactly the best thing to deal with – but it could be the worst!
Traumatic dental injuries require immediate attention by a dental professional. Prior to that, you can control the swelling and pain by using a cold compress. In certain cases, a broken tooth can still be saved, if treatment can be administered quickly enough. Otherwise, you may have to undergo an emergency tooth extraction to provide immediate relief before the injury gets worse (in other words, infected). In some cases, the dental professional may decide on an alternative solution if there is a possibility the tooth can still be saved.
Obstacle courses are supposed to test your endurance. But considering how injuries can happen during the time you spend training for an OCR, you will need all the information you can get so you can improve your performance without having to deal with serious injuries.
