Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Is A Sports Injury Down To Bad Luck Or Bad Form?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Is A Sports Injury Down To Bad Luck Or Bad Form?

    Is A Sports Injury Down To Bad Luck Or Bad Form?

    If you suffer a non-contact sports injury when environmental conditions and previous injuries cannot be blamed, the cause is most likely poor co-ordination. You are probably prepared to accept this as just one of the hazards of sport. A sports injury is seen as just bad luck or a sort of initiation into sport, worse still, some may even regard it as a trophy or a sign of commitment.

    Why do non-contact sports injuries happen? What condition allows a muscle to pull or a ligament to tear? Conventional advice on injury prevention in relation to movement includes: -

    Avoiding poor technique

    Maintaining good body alignment

    Using correct breathing patterns

    To follow this advice is harder than it first appears. Few of us are fully aware of what really constitutes good technique from a movement perspective because our learnt pattern is a habit. These patterns may become suspect due to poor conditioning, yet we remain unaware of the problem until an injury occurs. Up until this point we may have been satisfied with our technique if we have had no indication to the contrary. Following an injury new movement patterns are established to compensate for loss of function thus degrading the quality of movement further. Once this stage is reached avoiding poor technique is impossible without first improving how we move by eradicating the suspect patterns.

    Trying to correct a technique will more likely increase effort as concentrating on the task translates into muscle tension. Imposing a style on top of a poorly aligned structure does not improve the structure.

    To maintain good body alignment an athlete first needs to have poise to allow good body alignment! If we have poor movement patterns, and therefore questionable ?posture?, we will not know what good body alignment feels like and therefore be incapable of maintaining it.

    If the quality of our movement is poor, attempts to achieve correct breathing are futile. If the structure is unbalanced, natural functioning cannot be resumed until the structure is balanced.

    Conventional advice for sports injury prevention falls far short of addressing the real issue. Avoidance of injury requires a well-balanced, poised and flexible body capable of free movement in any direction with minimal effort. To achieve this state requires integration of the voluntary and reflex elements of movement, something we cannot achieve by trying harder.

    Many struggle to regain form after a serious sports injury and lengthy rehab period, some take months or fail completely. Getting back into form will be slow if we do not know exactly what it is that needs to be recovered.

    Natural talent for a sport comes from the right sort of conditioning. Good quality movement executed in the sporting activity sets up appropriate learnt movement patterns that reside at a subconscious level. These ?skill patterns? can be replaced by new poor quality actions following sports injury and possibly may never be regained.

  • #2
    Rehabilition: Time To Assess
    The rehabilitation period is vital. Time spent walking on crutches or with support will change the walking pattern. Within weeks a new pattern will overlay the existing one, a reconditioning to compensate for the injury. Following this type of injury, we may have a different manner of walking but remain unaware that anything is wrong. Before any progress can be made in returning to form, we must learn how to move naturally again. If this is not undertaken, all actions including core strengthening techniques and corrective exercise will use the new corrupt pattern as a foundation and impact upon performance.

    Remedial exercise plays an important role in the recovery process. However, to benefit from the treatment, it is essential to first identify the cause and then to prescribe the appropriate exercise, and secondly to perform them correctly. Too many people do not take these exercises seriously and fail to complete the programme due to boredom or impatience. Those who do the exercises often do so incorrectly. An exercise to strengthen a recovering muscle should not be done with just the specific part in mind.

    For example a knee exercise should not be performed whilst stiffening the neck or other part of the body to achieve the position and movement required. In the process of performing an exercise in this manner, we set up a new pattern containing inappropriate muscular actions that may eventually lead to further complication.

    Where a problem is identified before a sports injury occurs, corrective exercises to address it are prescribed in order to prevent it. However, this course of action is based on the assumption that the athlete has to do something new to offset the perceived problem. It is not generally considered that the athlete may already be doing something (wrong) that is causing the problem. If this is the case, they will continue to do this ‘something wrong’ whilst performing the new exercises. If the condition that led the perceived problem is still present the effect of the exercise will be limited or consolidate the pattern further. The use of our whole body and the impact of the movement need to be considered when performing exercise.

    A recent audit by The Football Association in the United Kingdom found 58% of injuries were non-contact injuries sustained during activities such as turning, landing, slowing down and sprinting. A small, but worrying, amount of injuries were sustained during mundane activities away from the game including climbing stairs, getting out of cars and even changing channel on the television (I only hope they were not injured using the remote control).

    The reasons why injuries appear to be increasing are up for debate. Issues such as diagnosis and treatment, using unfit players and the pressures of the modern game are probably factors. More research into the nature of sports injury will no doubt have an impact on the problem. However, whilst the emphasis is placed on corrective exercise for the symptoms, it will have limited success. If a player has lost poise through the application of excessive effort, the prevailing culture of exercise will only encourage more of the same regardless of new methods designed to strengthen the perceived weaknesses. Why do players sustain so many injuries during natural activities such as running and turning? Do existing exercises for improving fitness and sports injury rehab ultimately affect movement? Concentrating on individual muscle groups does not promote integrated movement. It is imperative that the whole concept is rethought before ‘new’ preventative exercise programmes are devised for sports injury sufferers.

    Where poor technique is considered to be a factor in the injury, an individual cannot be said to have made a full recovery, if they have not been made aware of what it is they are doing to cause the problem. Once the wrong use is identified, the important step of re-education must come next. It is not sufficient to simply instruct the individual to stop doing A or B. They are already unknowingly doing A or B because habit makes it feel right. The condition that allowed the poor habit must be addressed to bring about a full recovery. Absence of pain does not necessarily mean the process is complete.

    A motorist would not tolerate the need for repeat visits to the garage with a faulty car, yet when it comes to health many seem prepared to follow the injury-treatment cycle.

    Comment


    • #3
      When is an ache a pain?
      If you can spot the early warning signs you will prevent a serious sports-related injury.

      Sports injury prevention is something we tend to think about after the event! But obviously, we are no longer talking prevention because we need to rehabilitate first. Prevention is better than cure so hopefully you are reading this before you have suffered from the curse of modern sport. I can't take credit for the great headline as it was the controversial running coach and philosopher Percy Cerutty who first spoke these words over sixty years ago. Yet how many of us really take note of what our body is trying to tell us? Yes it is tempted to ignore those aches and pains when we are on a roll with a personal best just around the next corner - but we should listen.



      What if that minor irritation suddenly becomes an intense pain of a career ending injury? I bet we wished we had listened then! Of course we ache after a tough session, but when they become more frequent and prolonged you have to stop and reassess a few things. Your ache has officially now become a pain.

      Early Warning Signs And
      Sports Injury Prevention
      I would define an ache as a sensation you experience after training and may last for up to a day (at most). Putting your body and its muscles through its paces will cause tiny tears in the muscle. Hard, prolonged training will also deplete your body's mineral resources adding to the distress your body is under. However, this is a natural process - it's called getting fit. Your body has to adapt to the new conditions you set and bit by bit it gets better at meeting your demands.

      But if you start to ache during your training, or long after you session has finished, this is a sign that something is wrong.

      If you take sports injury prevention seriously you will need to re-evaluate your

      training program

      recovery period

      attitude

      nutritional intake

      technique

      Is your training program too intense? Are you allowing sufficient time to recover? Consider cross training in another activity or sport to compliment your training. For example, many runners enjoy a light swim to relieve aching legs. Choose an activity where you can relax and enjoy yourself without needing to compete or set a personal best.

      Nutrition plays a significant role in how your body adapts and recovers from your training. Long training sessions will use up valuable minerals that your body needs to rebuild and repair. If you are not eating properly you could be seriously limiting your performance plus accelerating your way to a sports injury.

      Check your attitude is not too competitive to the point you are adding unnecessary tension to your body - this will severely impact on your technique. You may argue that you need to be competitive to progress, I agree but what is your idea of being competitive involve? Too often I see it resulting in undue tension in clenched jaws, neck and shoulders - not a good way to get a peak performance from your body!

      Sports injury prevention is about taking your foot off the gas a little and listening to your body. You will be amazed at what you can sense happening plus just how much effort the majority of us waste on the 'wrong kind of effort'. Most of this effort is working against your body and just adds stress where it is not needed.

      Comment


      • #4
        Massage the injured area with a mixture of sunflower oil and camphor oil to soothe the pain. Include pineapples in your diet to aid the healing process. To get relief from intense pain drink a glass of warm milk with some turmeric powder added to it. Turmeric is known to have antiseptic properties.
        Admin
        Administrator
        Last edited by Admin; 11-01-2018, 12:04 PM.

        Comment


        • #5
          -

          Swelling is a natural part of the healing process. A month is not too bad. But I feel that your meniscus may have taken a beating. Did they schedule you for an MRI?
          If not I would ask for one. An XRay will only show bone damage.
          My Buddy just went through this and had to have his meniscus repaired from something exactly as you described.
          Good Luck
          TIM

          Comment


          • #6
            -

            Swelling is a natural part of the healing process. A month is not too bad. But I feel that your meniscus may have taken a beating. Did they schedule you for an MRI?
            If not I would ask for one. An XRay will only show bone damage.
            My Buddy just went through this and had to have his meniscus repaired from something exactly as you described.
            Good Luck
            TIM

            Comment


            • #7
              -

              Something that may help her with this injury and the goop....a fly mask to keep out particles that blow in the wind. Eye injuries are absolutely no fun.

              Comment


              • #8
                -

                Good to read he does not need an op so are you practicing your zen like calmness around him?
                Have you considered or maybe yr vet suggests some physio ,accupunture that will make him zonk out completely or even some dog massage.
                Guess you are already doing this - i would be inclined to feed as much of his meals in a kong to keep him busy
                Good luck andgive him a cuddle from us.

                Ps: Read yr blooming car manual so you can set the alarm for inside movement. Guess it wasYOUR car alarm going off when I went down to the park,huh huh?
                http://product-of-china.cf/

                Comment


                • #9
                  Good article. That is why it is always worth starting classes with an experienced trainer who will control your technique and your breathing at the initial and subsequent stages. Also, injury is caused by the fact that a person can relax during the exercise, because he has already done it many times, and it seems that it is impossible to do the exercise incorrectly. However, injuries can happen in any sport - ping-pong with it, biathlon, and much more. Therefore, it is important to be extremely careful in training.

                  Comment

                  Working...
                  X