Sporting activity is a way of life for many people, from the get fit enthusiast to the elite or not so elite athlete.
Osteopathic treatment may be of benefit in a range of sports injuries affecting all parts of the body including:
- shoulder injuries
- wrist and hand injuries
- tennis and golfer’s elbow
- Achilles tears and strains
- knees injuries involving ligaments and cartilage
- overuse injuries
- running cycling and swimming injuries
Sports injuries occur for a number of reasons such as:
- poor training techniques
- inadequate warm up
- poor equipment such as inadequate running shoes
- weak or tight muscles
- reduced or too much joint mobility
- poor stability or co-ordination
- poor biomechanics
Injury or re-injury to muscles, tendons and joints can result if one or more of the above factors has not been addressed.
Osteopathic sports injury management involves identifying firstly what’s wrong with the body (tight or weak muscle groups, stiff joints, biomechanical problems) and secondly what is being done to the body (training errors, poor warm up techniques etc)
The hallmark of Osteopathic treatment is to look for biomechanical problems in the athlete. This means that if one part of the body is not working well than another part of the body has to compensate by working harder which eventually leads to injury i.e. poor foot function can lead to knee injury or lower back problems.
The overall outcome is to decrease injury and improve performance.
