News - 6 March 2017

RUING RECCURRENCE…Practical advice for athletes with a history of soft tissue injuries

It’s an exciting time of year! Pre-season for winter sport is back and whether you’re an Australian Rules, Soccer, Hockey or Netball athlete, it’s great to be completing in comfortable conditions before the single-digit centigrade weekends hit.

Agility

Ruing Reccurrence

“Practical advice for athletes with a history of soft tissue injuries”

It’s an exciting time of year! Pre-season for winter sport is back and whether you’re an Australian Rules, Soccer, Hockey or Netball athlete, it’s great to be completing in comfortable conditions before the single-digit centigrade weekends hit.

However, with the resumption of the season, naturally there are those who are incurring soft tissue strain injuries. These are injuries of muscle/tendon tissue that often cause weakness, pain and loss of function. Unfortunately, these type of injuries are hallmarked by recurrence, but why is that? Surely if you give that torn calf time to heal you can resume full activity without a worry?

Unfortunately, this is often not the case. A systematic review study by Foreman et al, 2006, concluded that hamstring strength and previous hamstring injury were reliable predictors of hamstring injury in the future (p. 101). If you or a teammate has previously experienced a soft tissue injury, it is pivotal that they are rehabilitated correctly in order to prevent further time off the park.

At the elite AFL level, hamstring recurrence rate has been reduced from 45% in 1992 to 16% in 2014 (Orchard, Seward, Orchard, 2014, p. 9). While still the most common muscle injury, this is a notable reduction and significant credit has to go to the sports physicians, physiotherapists and strength and conditioning coaches for optimally conditioning athletes during the preseason and managing them properly in season. Hamstring rehabilitation is an area of study gaining strong momentum and focus in the sports medicine world, so physiotherapists are fortunate to be armed with such modern data and research!

In summery, here are a few helpful tips to assist in avoiding soft tissue injury.

  • Be sure to adequately condition yourself for your intended sport or activity. Undertake a graduated preseason under the combined instruction of your coaches, strength and conditioning team and physiotherapist. Steve Moneghetti didn’t finish 42km’s on his first run…
  • Make sure to rehabilitate your injuries fully. Not regaining strength and function after one injury can predispose you to re-injury and it may just save you weeks of further rehab down the track.
  • If you’ve previously had soft tissue injuries, be especially compliant with your individual pre-season program. You are unfortunately already pre-disposed to soft tissue injury. You would benefit from a screening assessment by your physiotherapist to help target your pre-season training to any specific areas of weakness or vulnerability.

So, whether you’re a casual runner or weekend warrior on the turf or court, don’t let a pesky muscle strain continue to pull you up. After a thorough assessment, our physiotherapists can tailor an individualised strength and injury prevention program especially for you. This includes establishing an evidenced based return to training and competition plan, giving you the best chance at an injury free and successful winter season!

 

References 

[three cone drill image]. (n.d.). Retrieved on 19/4/16 from http://runhub.sweatshop.co.uk/news/the-abcs-of-running/

[Foam rolling exercise image]. (n.d.). Retrieved on 19/4/16 from http://orthocorept.com/why-the-foam-roller-is-a-triathletes-best-freind/

Foreman, T. K., Addy, T., Baker, S., Burns, J., Hill, N., Madden, T. (2006). Prospective studies into the causation of hamstring injuries in sport: a systematic review. Physical Therapy in Sport. 7(2), 101-109, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ptsp.2006.02.001

[Nordic Hamstring exercise end image]. (n.d.). Retrieved on 19/4/16 from http://paulhead.co.uk/tag/nordic-hamstring-exercise/

 Orchard, J., Seward, H., Orchard, J. (2014). 2014 AFL Injury Report. Retrieved on 8/4/2016 from http://www.afl.com.au/staticfile/AFL%20Tenant/AFL/Files/2014-AFL-Injury-Report.pdf

 

 

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