Sports injuries are often classified into two groups:
Acute injury
This includes sprains and strains such as a sudden ankle sprain or muscle tear. These injuries are frequently accompanied by pain, inflammation and loss of movement.
Osteopathy can assist at this initial injury stage by calming the inflammatory process down and helping move important fluids of waste and repair to and from the site of injury. This will help to speed up recovery, reduce pain and start to return some of the function to the damaged joint or tissue.
As the injury begins to recover it is important to build up to full function by redeveloping the structure, strength, stability and flexibility of the tissue. It is this process where osteopathic treatment and guidance with rehabilitation can help athletes of all ages and abilities recover more quickly and reduce the risk of future re-injury.
Overuse injury
Overuse injuries often gradually develops from what appears to be little or no aggravation. In truth they are the result of repetitive micro-trauma to tissues of any type (such as joint cartilage, bones, muscles, ligaments & tendons) that gradually build up until the body is no longer able to adapt. The main symptoms reported are pain on movement or weight bearing and the inability to complete the desired activity or exercise at a particular pace, time, distance or intensity. These injuries often build up over weeks, months or even years and can become very hard to resolve without assistance and change.
Sport injuries are generally caused as a result of:
- Internal physical factors such as bio-mechanical imbalance, tissue weakness, poor technique and inadequate hydration & nutrition.
- External factors such as equipment failure, extreme environmental conditions or other competitors.
- A combination of the two factors above
Your osteopath with be able to provide you with physical treatment, exercises and advice to help you negotiate both these intrinsic and extrinsic causes of injury.
Through enhancing your strength, stability, flexibility and integration of your whole body osteopathy is able to enhance recovery, rehabilitate athletes to their sport and also improve overall performance.
Regular osteopathic treatment for all levels of athlete can be a good way of noticing and treating the early signs of injury before it is too late.
It can also be beneficial in maintaining structural balance, improving joint mobility and reducing adhesions and soft tissue restrictions so that the likelihood of re-injury is again reduced.
