Sports Injuries Causes & Symptoms
Exercise can be both a blessing and a challenge. Everyone doing sports is – of course – more likely to have sports injuries compared to those who just sit back and relax. Those injuries are a common risk for athletes, often limiting peak performance or simply preventing participation in a chosen sport. Around 1.35 million youths a year in the U.S. have serious sport injuries mostly affecting ankles, head and fingers. This certainly doesn’t mean that you should avoid exercise, because the health benefits far outweigh the costs in terms of sport injuries.
The most common sports injuries are ankle sprain and strains, swollen muscles, shin bone pain, knee injury, tennis elbow, rotator cuff injuries, fractures and dislocations.
Read MoreWhat causes Sports Injuries?
Exercise is good for you in terms of maintaining good health. But sometimes accidents, or poor training practices can harm your body and cause sport injuries. Some people hurt themselves because they are not in a good shape and want to get started from zero to one hundred. In fact, there are plenty of reasons. But if you are aware of them, you can try to avoid them.- Fall, accident, trauma
- Poor training practice: too heavy weight, poor warm-up or stretching
- Overuse or repetitive movements
- Improper equipment like shoes
- Increase of activity level is too fast
- Fatigue: your muscles need 48h rest to recover properly
Sports injuries can be acute and chronic. Acute injuries happen suddenly while playing or exercising. Sprained ankles, strained backs, or fractured hands are considered to fall in this category. Symptoms include:
- Severe pain
- Swelling
- Not being able to put weight on a leg, knee, ankle, foot, or hand
- Joint or bone that is visibly out of place
Chronic injuries in contrast emerge after you have exercised or played a sport for a long period of time. Symptoms are noticeable in the following pattern:
- You suffer from pain when you play or exercise
- You experience a nagging pain when you rest
- Swelling
When chronic injuries are not treated correctly they can turn into chronic pain!
Sports Injuries Recovery and Rehabilitation
Balance Health pursues an integrative approach. Our practitioners offer post-injury rehabilitation and quick recovery of sport injuries. We suggest an integrated treatment plan to effectively serve your regeneration. Our physiotherapists, osteopaths and certified practitioners work hand in hand to optimally satisfy your needs.
We support you with a combination of different therapies – from manual techniques to acupuncture – which are perfectly geared to each other. With the help of this unique approach we help you to recover as fast as possible, so that you can safely return to your sport and achieve your peak performance.
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Effective Sports Injuries Treatment Methods
Physiotherapy
Physiotherapy aims to restore movement and natural body function in case of injury or disability. Using clinical expertise with evidence-based research, our physiotherapists are trained to assess the underlying causes of joint, muscle and nerve disorder, educate patients about managing their condition, and advise ways to prevent pain and injury.
Often, a personal home program is prescribed for rehabilitation. Physiotherapists are involved in helping people of all ages, from young infants to the elderly, and commonly treat people suffering back or neck pain, other muscular pain and sports injuries.
- Soothes muscular pain
- Speeds recovery
- Advises how to prevent pain & injuries
Neuromuscular and Deep Tissue Sports Massage
Neuromuscular and Deep Tissue Sports Massage involves the manipulation of soft-tissue, for example muscles, fascia, ligaments & tendons, to relieve tightness, pain, and stress. Massage reduces the heart rate and blood pressure, increases blood circulation and lymph flow, reduces muscle tension, improves flexibility, and relieves pain. Massage Therapy has tremendous therapeutic benefits. It is an accepted part of many physical rehabilitation programs, and has proven to be beneficial for many acute and chronic conditions.
Using a mix of specific manual techniques – holding, manipulation of soft tissue, pressure to the body – Massage Therapy improves functioning of the circulatory, lymphatic, muscular, skeletal, and nervous systems and improves the rate at which the body recovers from injury and illness.
Know MoreAcupuncture
Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese practice that includes the insertion of hair-thin needles into the skin. Specific acupuncture points are stimulated in order to correct imbalances in the flow of energy in the body. In 2012 an international team of experts conducted a study involving almost 18,000 patients and proved that acupuncture does provide real relief from common forms of pain by about 50%.
- Reduces inflammation
- Improves muscle stiffness and joint mobility
- Changes the brain’s processing of pain with the release of endorphins
Osteopathy
The founder of Osteopathy Andrew Taylor Still described the approach of Osteopathy with the following maxim: "Find it, fix it and leave it alone".
The therapy is basically concerned with the manual treatment of joints and soft tissue using gentle muscle relaxation and joint articulation techniques, technically referred to as strain and counter-strain. One key tool in the osteopath’s arsenal is osteopathic manipulative treatment, which covers a wide range of hands-on, body manipulation.
- Gives guidance on simple self-help methods to use at home
- Helps a wide range of conditions, including repetitive strain injury, postural imbalances, arthritis and sports injuries
- Improves mobility of the spine, which in turn can makes the back or neck feel much comfortable
Shiatsu Massage
Shiatsu is a form of traditional Japanese bodywork that aims to release tensions from body and mind. It stimulates the body’s natural healing ability by applying gentle pressure to specific points across the body. This holistic therapy combines the Western knowledge about muscles, fascia and tissues and the Eastern philosophy of qi and energy channels. Thereby, making it an effective and recognized treatment for a wide range of injuries.
At the 2012 Olympics in London the Japanese team won an impressive nineteen medals. This was not only a striking victory for the team itself, but also for Japan’s sports science strategists. Minoru Yajima, medical advisor and physiotherapist for Japan’s Triathlon team said “If an athlete feels pain, we use acupuncture as first aid. Most of Japan’s medal winning medical strategy is preventative and based on a time-tested Japanese tradition – Shiatsu therapy.”
Shiatsu is generally also helpful with:
- Neck, shoulder and back pain
- Knee, Ankle and foot injuries
- Rotator cuff injuries or Illiotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS)
Bone Setting
Traditional bone setting is a holistic care process to cure the disbalance of the skeleton, muscles and joints, which might cause pain. By stretching, resetting, and realigning, traditional Chinese bone setting therapy can alleviate bone-related pain to cure disarticulation and other orthopedic diseases.
Know MoreTRE® (Tension, Stress and Trauma Releasing Exercises)
TRE® safely activates a natural reflex mechanism of shaking or vibrating that releases muscular tension, calming down the nervous system. When this muscular shaking/vibrating mechanism is activated in a safe and controlled environment, the body is encouraged to return to a state of balance.
TRE® emerged out of Dr. David Berceli’s work with large traumatized communities while living in Africa and the Middle East. His observation and exploration led him to understand that this natural shaking/vibrating response appears to be the body’s own built-in system for quieting down the brain and releasing muscular tension as a way of healing itself from chronic stress, tension and trauma.
- Provides faster recovery
- Minimizes the body soreness and tension
- Improves sport performance
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