Got a sports injury? See an Osteopath!
An injury that results from physical recreation, exercise or training counts as a sports injury. An Osteopath identifies problems relating to the muscles, bones and tissues; this broad approach helps to identify wider issues which can contribute to localised pain or specific complaints.
There are two broad categories that sports-related injuries fall into:
Overuse injuries and
Trauma injuries
Sports injury from overuse:
Overuse and over training, such as runner’s knee, golfer’s arm or tennis elbow is where you push your body to its limit.
Repetitive movements can inflame tendons and ligaments, create shin splints and cause aches and pains. Other repetitive sports injuries can include muscle strain, herniated disc, Achilles tendonitis, tarsal tunnel syndrome and common sports these occur in are golf, football, basketball, athletics, tennis and CrossFit training.
Osteopathic treatment for sporting injuries caused from overuse are effective in accelerating your injury healing time, relieving pain and identifying any other problem areas within your body that may be contributing to your injury to prevent it from happening again.
An Osteopath reviewing your sports injury will examine how your body moves and your physical skills against demands of your sport. Physical skills are things like muscle strength or muscle length, force, speed/agility, balance and flexibility.
Trauma injuries from Sporting activities:
Your first point of call after any musculoskeletal injury is your Osteopath. As primary health care practitioners that specialise in neuromusculoskeletal pain, Osteopathy can ensure that your condition is accurately diagnosed, and you are provided best-practice management and rehabilitation treatment.
Acute trauma injuries can occur when you take a tumble on the hiking trail or the playing field, make that dive tackle or dive to catch that ball. It could be from lifting too much weight at the gym, or even stretching too hard in your yoga class. Such injuries cause damage to soft tissues or joints and more severe injury can cause skeletal injury including dislocations, breaks and bruising.
An Osteopath might use clinical tests of the nerves, joints and movement to assess the level of the injury and how it could impact your sporting abilities.
Getting you back into action sooner
Getting you back out there as soon as possible following an injury often requires more than just rest and time. Especially if your problem is recurring. In many cases it is necessary to address areas of restricted or dysfunctional movement that are responsible for ongoing tissue irritation, helping your body to move more efficiently.
In addition to corrective manual and movement therapy an Osteopath will also prescribe, remedial massage and acupuncture (available at Central Coast Osteopath Healthy Beings Centre) which can also be useful adjuncts to speed healing. It successfully relaxes excessive muscle guarding, increases blood flow to the affected area and helps to manage pain.
Prevention is better than cure
Osteopathic treatment as a means of keeping your body in optimum physical shape as well as a way to heal or ease existing conditions is very effective.
Our Osteopath can treat athletes of all abilities and can help you with injury prevention and management, rehabilitation (including developing plans for rehabilitation and performance) and treatment of common sporting injuries.
While you’re injured and protective of a painful area, you may develop compensatory movement patterns to help keep pressure off the healing tissue. This is a natural short-term response however it can often lead to discomfort elsewhere in the body, and these areas may also require treatment as you heal. An Osteopath will address such issues as these during your rehabilitation treatment.
Examining imbalances or weaknesses in your body that could put you at risk of injury during sporting activity or when performing certain movements is a key preventative of further injury. An Osteopath all always take a broad approach that helps to identify wider issues which can contribute to further risk or injury.
Our Osteopaths can diagnose and treat the following sports injuries:
- Muscle strains such as hamstring, calf and groin strains
- Ligament sprains such as a rolled ankle
- Shin splints
- Knee and hip pain
- Shoulder, elbow and wrist pain
- Recurring musculoskeletal injuries
- Injuries related to long distance running including:
- inflamed tendons,
- shin splints and
- aches and pains – particularly in the hamstrings and the back.
Osteopathy can stretch and condition the muscles and ease the pain; a routine of stretches to carry out at home can also be recommended.