Remuera Physio Advice: Common Injuries And How To Avoid Them

The likelihood of a person injuring themselves from their daily routine and activities, or from performing an everyday task, is quite high. Accidents happen all the time, people can easily trip and fall while rushing to catch a taxi or bus. We can have someone bump into us at the grocery store with a heavy trolley. Moving too quickly to react can also cause injury. There’s simply no way to prevent injuries from happening completely. And even though as Remuera physios we can provide you with in-depth knowledge about common injuries, it’s important to remember that sometimes the inevitable does happen. But there are solutions when it does.

We are equipping you with the information on the three most common injuries and how to manage them. This can ensure you take on proper treatment to avoid worsening the damage internally.

Shin Splint Pain 

We treat many shin splints and tend to notice them more in patients who engage in physical activity frequently, in particular running. It affects the shin, the front area of the lower leg and it is impacted by inadequate preparation before activity. This means that poor flexibility/strength and technique can cause considerable pain. You can try to avoid this by ensuring you have enough recovery days between sessions, follow a gradual build-up to running, have proper running shoes and are engaging in a regularly strength, stability and stretching program.

Elbow Pain 

One of the most common strain injuries we see at the practice is Tennis Elbow. Although associated with being a sports injury, it can occur from everyday tasks and even physically demanding work. A physiotherapist can assess your lifestyle and daily movements and help introduce exercises to adjust the way you perform throughout the day to avoid overloading this area and aggravating your pain.

Tendon Injuries

The connective tissue that attaches our muscles to our bones also takes a beating. During exercise, they can be put under immense pressure and can result in both strains or sprains. It can happen with rapid movement when your body simply isn’t prepared or ready or if you have been doing a repetitive movement such as training for a marathon or jumping in basketball. To help decrease your risk of a tendon injury, it is important to prepare the tendon for the load it is about to undertake, such as performing straight leg pogo jumps prior to running or squat jumps prior to basketball. Having sufficient rest days built into your week also allows these tendons to rest and repair.

If you have been fortunate enough to avoid a musculoskeletal injury for most of your life, you can count yourself as one of the lucky ones. It can happen at any stage in life and can vary in severity, which could impact on your activity levels if left untreated. However, that does not mean you needn’t take care going forward. Book an appointment online with us today to see one of our Remuera physio specialists for all your movement concerns.