I’m Shelley from Miami Physio and Lakelands Physio and I’m talking about what can go wrong when you up the ante too much in your exercise regime.
So, you’ll remember I mentioned my gradual, paced build up to being able to jog 5km?
Everything was going peachy with my one 5km run per week at parkrun, and a walk each week as well. Then I decided to go back to playing netball. No strength training, no specific netball drills, just straight back into netball after a 12-year hiatus.
Turns out there’s a lot of jumping, sprinting, twisting, and pivoting in netball. So, a couple of weeks in, I developed knee pain (patellofemoral pain syndrome), groin pain and Achilles tendinopathies.
Yup – this is a common thing we see in people who have a break from sport and then try to jump back in right where they left off, with no gradual training program. And again, I knew better, but I did it anyway.
How did I manage these injuries?
I load managed. I used tape; I helped to offload my knee turn in with orthotics; I had some physio treatment – and most importantly I added a few specific strengthening exercises. And, I kept playing netball and I kept up my running.
Surprised?
Sometimes load management doesn’t mean stopping your activity. It means modifying, supporting, sometimes reducing, and again pacing.
Yup, – if you rest some injuries, particularly tendinopathies – they will stop hurting. But you will get weaker and as soon as you try to return to your activity these tendinopathies will flare up.
Note: Certain injuries do need rest – so best to consult your friendly physio for advice
Load management requires the right amount of load to strengthen without overloading the tissues. This is the only way to fix a tendinopathy, or a movement problem that is due to a lack of strength. And yes, it takes a while to get that strength.
So if you are having issues with injuries related to a change in your sport, or an increase in your training volume, come see us and we will be able to help you with the strengthening and load management to get you back on track (we’ll also help to manage and reduce your pain!).
In part 3, let’s talk about that 100km challenge and the lessons learnt!
