Winter sports season has arrived which means two things: more fun and of course more sports injuries! Whether you are increasing your running distance or speed, maintaining a solid pre-season training schedule or starting pre-season matches, you may be starting to experience a few niggles that don’t seem to go away.
Whether it be soccer, rugby, AFL or netball, TPL pride ourselves on making an accurate diagnosis, provide you with the education, treatment and rehab tools so that you can leave the clinic confident knowing your plan.
Pre-season and early in the season is perhaps where most injury niggles occur for a number of reasons. We know that sharp and excessive increases in training loads, sub-standard recovery, a lack of preparation and specific biomechanics all combine to cause overload injuries.
We also know that when a training program is specifically tailored to an athlete, adequate rest periods are incorporated within and between sessions and specific strength training is included into a program, the likelihood of sustaining an overload injury reduces significantly (Lauersen et al., 2018). Furthermore, properly designed and implemented strength training has an analgesic effect on overload injuries such as tendon-related injuries like tendinopathies.
Overload injuries we treat in the clinic include:
- Upper limb tendinopathy including rotator cuff injuries
- Lower limb tendinopathies including Achilles, patella and hamstring
- Anterior knee pain
- Shoulder impingement
- Stress fracture rehabilitation
- Shin splints
- Non-specific lower back pain
Management of these injuries varies between cases however a lot of injury management will follow a common theme:
- Load management
- Management of inflammation
- Strengthening / core stability
- Mobility
Of course, all of this is dependent on getting an early, accurate diagnosis. A study by Whalan et-al (2020) found that early reporting of a minor niggle to a physiotherapist lead to less time out from sport compared to players who kept their symptoms hidden. So this means good early reporting to your physiotherapist will likely save you time on the sideline!
If this sounds like you and you believe you are experiencing an overload injury, do not hesitate to give us a call or you can book online.