Our osteopaths are passionate about sports and activities, but are also well aware of the injuries that can happen whilst participating in these sports.
We love helping people achieve their sporting goals, so whether you’re new to a particular sport or you’ve been competing for a while, we enjoy helping our patients push their bodies and help keep them injury free.
Through hands on treatment, strengthening and stretching exercises and patient education our aim is to help keep you pain free and able to do what you enjoy.
If you’re wondering whether osteopathy might be able to help you with those niggles whilst running, help keep you in the gym each week or you would like some assistance keeping injury free whilst you train for a particular event, book an appointment and see how one of our osteopaths might be able to help you today.
Why So Many Sports Injuries Occur
From running, to cycling, weights, swimming or dancing, we get to see a wide variety of sports through our patients.
There are many types of sporting injuries, but there are two main reasons why these injuries occur.
One type of injury happens because the load being placed on our body is too great for it to handle. When we ask too much from a particular area of our body and its unable to meet these demands, injury can then occur. There are many reasons why the capacity in our bodies might be reduced – lack of sleep, high stress levels, not being fit enough and posture. Any imbalance in our bodies can then be highlighted when more demand is placed on that area such as during exercise. This is especially noticeable when playing sports which require repetitive movements, as this can further highlight areas of imbalance that aren’t functioning optimally and are unable to take on the extra load you are asking of it. These injuries can also happen because we don’t allow our body the time it needs to adapt and change. It is worth remembering, that just sometimes we need to be more patient and gradually allow our bodies the time they need to adapt to the demands of the exercise.
The other type of injury happens when the body experiences unexpected trauma. This could be through a sudden movement, a quick change in direction, a trip, fall or a push. Whilst you can’t prepare for all eventualities in sport, training your muscles and body using a range of activities, combining cardio, strength training, and stretching helps keep your body fit and strong, reducing the possibility of injury. If injury does occur, getting the correct treatment and rehab started as quickly as possible helps reduce the recovery time.
Can Osteopathy Help Sports Injuries?
We frequently see patients with sports injuries and they are usually pretty frustrated that the injury is preventing them from doing the sport they love. Osteopathy can help with a wide range of musculoskeletal injuries using hands on techniques such as massage and joint articulation to help alleviate your symptoms. Our practitioners are also trained in Western Acupuncture (dry needling) which is a technique aimed at releasing myofascial trigger points helping muscles relax, be less painful and improve their range of movement, we find this highly effective in all of our patients, but especially in athletes. Our osteopaths will aim to keep you as active as they can throughout your injury, making sure that the activity isn’t aggravating your symptoms further, as we understand being active has lots of perks to it. They will also provide you with tailored exercises to help stretch and strengthen your muscles which can help prevent the injury from reoccurring.
Why Use Osteopathy For Sports Injuries?
If you’re a keen sports person you will know how frustrating it can be to be injured.
Osteopathic treatment can help with both acute and more chronic injuries and the aim of treatment is to try and get you back to exercising as quickly as possible. We will try and keep you as active as we can throughout your recovery, as long as the activity isn’t aggravating your injury we understand that exercise has multiple benefits to it. If you are training for a big sporting event and the training is intensive, a more long term management plan can be effective to help prevent injury from happening whilst the training increases. Our osteopaths can help you identify and manage issues and give you practical lifestyle advice to help keep you fit and healthy.
Osteopathy is focused on getting different areas of the body working harmoniously together, without these areas causing dysfunction somewhere else. By using a combination of hands on techniques including joint articulations and mobilisations, soft tissue techniques to help massage muscles, ligaments and tendons and looking at the body as a whole, osteopathy can help get you functioning optimally. We also believe that by educating our patients, we can help prevent the injury from reoccurring, helping keep you injury free.
Running
Starting the couch to 5km? A weekly park run? Training for a 10km, half marathon, marathon or ultra? The distance might vary, but the same running injuries can occur.
Running can place extra demand on your legs, pelvis, your lower & upper back. Our osteopaths will look at your posture and address any muscle tension that may be placing strain on your hips, knees, Ilio-tibial band (ITB) and ankles.
Football
Amateur to professional football players place big demand on their bodies whilst playing. The stop-start nature of the game, the sudden changes in direction and the sprinting element place stresses and strain on many areas of the body. Osteopaths can identify and diagnose these injuries, helping rehab the muscles, tendons and ligaments keeping them supple, strong and injury free.
Cycling
Injuries in cyclists can vary from neck issues to lower back injuries to wrist pain. These symptoms can start as small aches and pains, but they can start to progress especially when you’re cycling more frequently for example over the summer months. Think of an osteopathic treatment like getting your bike serviced, it’s just you you’re putting the time into, not your bike!
Cricket
Cricketing injuries can vary from shoulder, upper back and arm issues from bowling to back pain, hip and knee pain when batting. Our osteopaths help our patients get ready for cricket season and we enjoy keeping those patients fit and agile throughout the summer season too.
Gym
Going to the gym and the goal you want to achieve from it can mean different things to different people. From personal training sessions, to small group PT, circuits, cardio, weights – Our osteopaths can help with injuries whether from a traumatic onset to aches and pains caused by overuse or overtraining. We can help you identify the cause of your symptoms and put strategies in place to stop it from reoccurring.
Rugby
There’s not many areas of the body that rugby doesn’t place big demand on, it’s a physically intense game, which is one of the reasons people love playing it. Addressing any injuries earlier rather than later is important especially as most people want to continue playing for the season. Osteopathy can help keep your body working optimally, reducing the risk of injury and helping you cope with the demands of the game better.
Golf
Restrictions in your shoulder, back, hips or knees can affect your golf swing and also your ability to get round the course. Golfers elbow is a common injury we see in the clinic. Our osteopaths can help you with these issues and can help get your body working efficiently together so you can play the best round of golf you can.
Swimming
Swimming is a great all round type of exercise and one we often encourage our patients to do. The low impact nature of swimming can be great for people of all ages with or without an injury. Neck, shoulder and lower back issues are common injuries that our osteopaths treat in swimmers. Sometimes as well as hands on osteopathic treatment, small technique changes can also help.
Skiing, Snowboarding and Other Winter Sports
We love the winter season and especially love hearing about people’s upcoming winter trips. Our advice to our patients is to get them prepared for a winter trip at least 6 wks before they go. A good stretching and strengthening programme for those key muscles for a minimum of 6wks can help reduce injury and pain. A little bit of the right preparation can go a long way allowing you to get the most out of your trip.
Osteopathic treatment can help identify and treat any imbalances and tightness in the ankles, hips, knees, lower and upper back allowing you to be more mobile and flexible whilst you’re away in the mountains. Of course like with everything, you can’t prepare for all eventualities and injuries do occur, but by being as strong, flexible and agile as you can some of these injuries are less likely to happen.
If you’re planning a ski trip and are wondering whether our osteopaths could help you, please get in touch.
Combat Sports
Combat sports can be intense and demanding on the body and commonly we see injuries from these sports due to overtraining or postural issues. Osteopathy can help address postural issues you may have as well as getting the body to work together better as a whole, allowing for better force transference and absorption.
Tips for Dealing with Sports Injuries
Start your training gradually
Generally we don’t introduce exercise as gradually as we should and this often leads to aches and pains occurring. The tissues in our body take time to adapt and it’s important to allow the body this time to evolve and progress. Try not to get frustrated that things aren’t progressing quick enough.
Listen to your body
If something doesn’t feel ‘right’ to you then listen to that signal. Discomfort and niggles do happen especially during exercise but when it feels like something more, stop and seek advice.
Seek advice sooner rather than later
This helps keep your recovery time as short as possible and it can help reduce the compensations through your body. Our osteopaths will always try and keep you active where possible, this might mean doing a different activity for a short while, but our osteopaths will be able to advise you on what would be best for you and your injury.
Prevention is better than cure
Regular osteopathic treatment can help keep you fit and active. So if you’re someone who loves the sport they do, but injuries keep getting in your way, get in touch with us to see if we can help identify the cause of your pain and help manage these symptoms and get you back doing what you love.
We are passionate about sports here at Bright Osteopathy and we love helping our patients stay fit and healthy. From being able to walk round the local park to mountain biking across the South Downs, the activity intensity may vary in our patients, but being able to stay fit and active is important in people of all ages.
If you think our osteopaths might be able to help you, get in touch with us today.