If you sustain a finger injury during sport there are some good indicators as to whether you should continue to play or stop immediately.
You should stop playing immediately If there is:
– an obvious deformity of the shape of the finger
– if the joint is obviously dislocated
– if you are unable to move the finger or movement is accompanied by sharp pain Read more
Do you find your calves always stiffen/tighten with running? Let’s take a look at some potential reasons behind why the calf muscles get stressed.
1) Overload of the muscle due to inadequate muscle strength and power in the lower limbs.
Decreased lower limb strength can lead to the overload of the calf during the push-off phase of running. Our gluteal and quadriceps muscles play an important role in propelling ourselves forward. Without strength and endurance in these muscles, the calf muscle can become the sole driver of propulsion, hence can become fatigued and tired. Consideration also needs to be given to the calf itself in terms of strength and endurance, to handle the load placed upon it in running.
Ankle sprains are common in change of direction, pivotal or jumping sports. Ankle sprains cause pain, dysfunction, time off sport and often require treatment. Athletes who injure an ankle are prone to re-injure the same ankle and this can lead to to ongoing problems and chronic instability. Proprioception is a neuromuscular process concerned with internal kinaesthetic awareness of body position and movement. Proprioceptive training challenges the ability of the targeted joint to detect and react to afferent input regarding joint position. This training aims to help improve capabilities of this system in order to prevent primary and secondary injury. Read more
Not only does the beach offer a change in scenery, relaxation, and a potential source of motivation for training, it also offers a change in surface that is lower in impact and ground reaction forces. This change in surface can be beneficial for people with bony impact related injuries or for people who train frequently on a hard track and want to mix up their training load with a lighter impact session. Read more
Slipped disc, known medically as a prolapsed disc, is a medical condition affecting the spine in which a tear in the outer, fibrous ring of an intervertebral disc allows the soft, central portion to bulge out beyond the damaged outer rings.
Discs are shock absorbers which act as a spacer between each vertebra in the spine. Discs are made up of an inner ring which is a jelly-like substance known as the nucleus, and an outer ring which is a thick and rubbery-like-substance known as the annulus.
Bulges in the annulus and drying of the nucleus are common symptoms of ageing (>30 years). These changes are generally painfree, but may become symptomatic. Annular tears or disc ruptures usually occur with heavy lifting or twisting in a flexed position, or coughing/ sneezing. If the nucleus ruptures this can exert pressure on the spinal cord or exiting nerve roots, and this is called disc herniation, disc protrusion or disc prolapse. This can then cause chemical irritation to the nerve and surrounding tissue or mechanical pressure on the exiting nerves. Both of these nerve irritations can cause subsequent sciatica. Read more
The patellofemoral joint is part of your knee involving the knee cap (patella) and the thigh bone (femur). The patella sits inside a grooved surface on the distal end of the femur. The patella should glide up and down in this groove smoothly, but can sometimes be misaligned and caused maltracking. The quadriceps muscle holds the patella and helps control the movement in the groove.