27th May 20

I hope you are managing to make the most of the sunshine?

The ironic thing is that whilst most sport has been cancelled over the past few months, people have been more active than ever! It has been so encouraging to see how many online classes (including ours ) there have been, alongside so many more people cycling, walking and running! 

Sports injuries happen. People ask us all the time ‘why did it happen?’. The answer is not always easy. Sometimes the cause of the injuries is through training error, or a mistake – but commonly, they can just happen for no apparent reason. Which can make them very frustrating. 

Here are a few tips around Sports Injuries:

1. Don’t be a weekend warrior!
We use the term ‘Weekend Warrior’ to describe people who are not that active during the week, and then go and do a lot of activity/sports on the weekend. These are the people most likely to end up with a Monday morning appointment!

To reduce your risk of injury, try to maintain active throughout the week, so you don’t have a huge spike on the weekend. If you do have a busy week and you can’t do much exercise, don’t try and make up for it on the weekend. The sudden increased overload is the most common cause of muscle and tendon injuries.

2. Good early management
If you suffer with a sports injury, the first thing to do is immobilise it and rest. Don’t try and push through it unless you have been told to! Ice can help control some of the inflammation, as well as gentle mobility exercises. 

Once the acute phase of the injury has ended, a Physiotherapist should be able to give you a step by step return to sport programme – which will differ depending on your sport! 

3. Get the right treatment
Sports injuries are most effectively treated when they are picked up early. As physiotherapists, it allows us to take control of the healing process, to make sure we can optimise both the bodies natural processes – and the use of some of the techniques we have available to us. 

Shockwave therapy is one of these techniques, which is one of the fastest and most effective treatment techniques used for sports injuries – used in professional sports clubs such as Liverpool FC and Saracens RFC.

Inevitably, sports injuries do occur – and you don’t need to be a sports person to get them! The easiest way to prevent sports injuries is to increase your exercise levels GRADUALLY. Rapid overload = injury – simple as that!

If you would like any help with a sports injury, please reach out to us by clicking here