Sports Injuries

Physical Therapy can help relieve your sports injury as quickly as possible

Whether you’re a professional athlete or a weekend warrior, it is important to stay safe while performing your sport. Any injury sustained during physical activity can be categorized as a sports injury. Physio can get you off the sidelines and back in the game!

How will physical therapy help my sports injury?

I will develop an individual treatment plan, based on your specific needs, in order to help get you back to your sport as soon as possible. This will be done after performing a diagnostic examination and a review of diagnostic tests, such as X-rays or MRI. Treatment plans will take into account the nature of your injury, your fitness level, and your lifestyle.

Your plan may include, manual therapy like joint mobilization, dry needling, laser, shockwave and massage, to increase your range of motion and reduce scar tissue, stretches to improve mobility, and graded strengthening exercises to get you back to your sport as soon as possible. These are all done to help you recover after your sports injury and to prevent further injuries from occurring in the future.

Common sports injuries

There are a number of different injuries that can occur while performing an athletic activity; however, the most common forms of sports injury include:

Knee

Your knee is the most complex joint in your body and is, therefore, one of the most commonly injured body parts. Knee injuries may include dull aches that run from your hip to your knee, repetitive use injuries making it difficult to move the knee, or more severe injuries such as an ACL tear.

Ankle

Any sport that involves running can put the ankle at some risk. By far the most common ankle injury is a sprain. More specifically, an inversion sprain. Most people have probably rolled their ankle at some point in their life. An inversion sprain is an injury where the ankle rolls from the outside in, injuring the lateral ankle. There are different grades for ankle sprains ranging from mild damage to complete ligament tearing. Another thing that can occur with an ankle sprain is an avulsion fracture. An avulsion fracture occurs when there is stress placed on a ligament and instead of the ligament tearing, the bone where the ligament is pulling breaks off. This usually occurs in an eversion ankle sprain (where the ankle rolls from inside to outside) because the ligaments on that side of the ankle are much stronger.

Shoulder

Shoulder injuries are very common in any sport that involves a lot of overhead activity or rotation in the shoulder. Sports such as Gaelic football , hurling, tennis, swimming, are known for these injuries. One of the most common types of injuries in the shoulder is a rotator cuff (RTC) tendinitis or strain. This happens when one or more of the four RTC muscles becomes inflamed (or even torn) after too much-repeated pressure/friction is placed on them by the bones in the shoulder. Oftentimes, there will be a weakening of the muscular integrity over time with repeated stress and then a large amount of force from something like a pitch or overhand serve finally tears some of the muscle fibers. Another very common shoulder injury is a labral tear. This occurs most often when a shoulder is subluxated or dislocated. The labrum is a cartilaginous tissue that provides more support around the shoulder joint. If this is torn, a person will often feel pain and instability in the shoulder that is injured.

Back

As far as sports go, the back is typically injured in either a high impact landing incident/contact with another player or a weight lifting accident. As far as high impact injuries, the back can sustain a fracture or potentially even a spinal cord injury, though these are more rare. With weight lifting, especially exercises like squats, deadlifts, and power cleans, form is vitally important to protect the back. Coaches must be sure to teach proper form with little to no weight in order to make sure their players are doing it correctly. Back injuries from lifting commonly include muscle strains or herniated discs. Strained muscles are usually easier to care for, but herniated discs can sometimes cause nerve compression and if they are bad enough, may require surgery to be repaired.

Sprain

A sprain occurs when a ligament connecting one bone to another is stretched beyond its limits. Much like a strain, once a sprain occurs and a ligament is overstretched, it is more likely that it’ll occur again.

Strain or “pulled muscle”

A strain also referred to as a “pulled muscle,” occurs when a tendon connecting your muscle to bone is stretched beyond its limits. Once the tendon is overstretched, it is more likely that it will be strained once again.

Shin splints

The medical term for shin splints is “medial tibial stress syndrome,” referring to pain that is felt in the shin bones. This pain is typically caused by stress placed on the shinbone and the connective tissues surrounding it. Shin splints are painful and often debilitating; however, they can be avoided by wearing proper footwear, warming up before exercise, and strengthening your core and leg muscles.

Why did I develop a sports injury?

The term “sports injury” is all-encompassing, including any type of injury that occurs while performing athletic activity. It can happen just the same by lifting heavy weights at the gym or running in ill-fitted shoes, as it can by swinging a bat too aggressively or rolling your ankle on the soccer field.

One of the most important aspects of rehabilitating a sports injury is treating it as soon as possible. Your treatment plan and duration of recovery will vary depending on how severe the injury is, your health history, and whether or not the injury requires surgical intervention.

How do I reduce my risk of injury

Injuries are common throughout sports, but precautions can be taken to reduce the risk of these injuries. Most injuries occur in places that are already being over stressed by players due to unforeseen or unnoticed muscle imbalances/weaknesses. Pre-season injury prevention screening can help reduce these imbalances and weaknesses and thus reduce the risk for injuries in those areas. Also, proper education on form for both lifting and sport-specific skills is important to help reduce the risk of players sustaining potentially season-ending injuries.