Recovery Rehab

Recovery starts where the injury does

Most recovery follows a knock, a rolled ankle, or a heavy load carried through a joint over a long season. The support you strap on for game day and the recovery you do afterwards are two halves of the same job, and the second half is the one that gets missed. If you have just come off a rolled ankle or a sore knee, our guides on strapping an ankle and taping a knee for support cover the strapping side, and this page covers what comes after the final siren.

The tape itself lives in our rigid strapping tape range, and where a brace makes more sense than tape, our braces and supports carry the ankle, knee, and shoulder options. For a shoulder that needs work between games, the shoulder taping guide is a sensible starting point. Recovery is not one product, it is a routine: the right support during play, sensible loading through the week, and the tools on this page to manage the soreness in between. For anything that is not settling on its own, a physiotherapist is the right next step, not another week of pushing through.

Compression for heavy legs and support

Compression is one of the first things a lot of athletes reach for after a hard session, and the practical option Straptor stocks is firm tubular compression. A tubular bandage gives light, even pressure and holds a cold pack in place while you get on with your day, which is why it earns a spot in most kit bags. It is cheap, it re-rolls, and it suits a player who wants something simple to put on after a session and forget about.

Tubular bandages and supports come in a range of widths, so you can match the wrap to the limb, from a finger through to a thigh. Pick the width that sits snugly without cutting in, and re-roll it if it starts to bunch. It is not a treatment, just a bit of steady pressure that a lot of runners and players like the feel of through a heavy week, so get the size right, since a wrap that is too tight does more harm than good.

Hot and cold therapy, and when to use each

Cold and heat do different jobs, and reaching for the right one matters more than most people think. Cold is what a lot of people reach for on a fresh injury, the ice in the old RICE routine: an ice wrap or a cold pack over a new ankle sprain or a corked thigh is used for short-term pain relief in the first day or two, more for comfort than as a treatment. Heat is the one for stiffness and tight muscles, the ache you feel the morning after a game or the tightness you want to loosen before a session. The common mistake is putting heat on a fresh, swollen injury, which can make the swelling worse.

As a rough guide, think cold for a new, sharp, swollen problem and heat for an old, stiff, dull one. Keep an ice wrap on for around fifteen to twenty minutes at a time with a layer between the pack and the skin, not straight on it. Straptor stocks reusable hot and cold therapy packs and ice wraps that shape to the joint and go from the freezer to the microwave depending on the job. One pack that covers both uses is the sensible buy for most kit bags.

None of this replaces a proper look at the injury. If pain or swelling is severe, if you cannot put weight through the limb, or if it is not settling after a few days, see a physiotherapist or doctor rather than working around it with an ice pack.

Massage oils and creams

Massage does the quiet between-session work of keeping muscles loose, and a good massage cream or oil is what lets the hands do it without dragging on the skin. A lotion or oil gives enough slip to work through a tight calf, a stiff back, or sore quads, whether a trainer is running the rub or a player is working on their own legs after a session. They are cheap enough to keep one in the kit bag, and they pair with the stretching and mobility work a physio or trainer sets, rather than replacing it.

There is a limit to what a rub-down does, and it is worth being honest about it. It loosens tight muscles and takes the edge off the everyday soreness that builds through a season, but it does not fix a real injury, and working straight over a fresh strain or a sharp pain is a way to make it worse. Use it on general tightness, and leave the acute problems to ice, tape, and a physio.

Athletic creams and rubs

Warming rubs and recovery creams are a change-room staple, and the ones players ask for by name are worth keeping on the shelf. Metsal and Cosma are the heat rubs a lot of footballers grew up with, worked into tight muscles before a run or after a game. They warm the skin and are part of plenty of pre-game routines across grassroots football. Wash your hands after using a heat rub, and keep it well away from eyes and broken skin.

Hirudoid is the other cream people reach for. It is a topical cream that contains a heparinoid, sold through pharmacies as a cream and a gel, and it is commonly used on bruising and the everyday bumps that come with contact sport. Because these are pharmacy products with active ingredients, follow the directions on the label, and ask a pharmacist if you are unsure whether one suits you or someone in your care. If a bruise is very large, very painful, or has come up without a clear knock, get it looked at rather than treating it at home.

Exercisers and rehab equipment

The rest of the recovery range covers the gear that gets players back to full training. Exercisers like resistance tubing and bands are the tools for strength and mobility work and the exercises a physio might set as part of a return-to-sport plan. Bands are light, they pack down to nothing, and they let a player keep loading a joint through a controlled range while it settles. The larger items live in the recovery equipment range, from mobility aids to the bits a club keeps on hand across the season.

For a club, a set of bands in a few resistance levels is one of the cheapest additions to the recovery shelf. The same band that warms up a healthy player also runs the light, controlled work a player does coming back from a strain, which is why physios lean on them so heavily. Keep a couple of levels on hand so a player can step the load up as they improve, rather than jumping straight back into full training.

A season's recovery kit

For a club trainer stocking up before round one, a recovery kit does not need to be complicated. A couple of reusable hot and cold packs, a roll or two of tubular bandage, a bottle of massage oil or cream, and the change-room rubs the players already use will cover most of what turns up on a Saturday. Add resistance bands for the players working back from an injury, and you have the week covered. Restock the packs and bandages a couple of times across the season and you are rarely caught short.

The advantage of buying it together is that the tape, the strapping accessories, and the recovery gear all come from the one order, so there is no chasing three different suppliers mid-season. Clubs also get the club discount across the range, which adds up over a season of restocking.

One order, kitted and sent

Straptor pulls tape, strapping accessories, and the full recovery range together in one place, so a club can kit a whole season from a single order. Sports clubs get the club discount across the recovery range, sent nationwide or picked up in person at our East Bendigo store. If you are not sure what your club needs for the season ahead, call the team on 03 5443 2239 and we will talk it through.