athlete.
RETURN TO SPORT STRONGER AND FASTER THAN BEFORE.
We understand sports people. Our company was founded to help sports people. Every one of our team of sports injury treatment specialists has experience in competitive sport not only as a therapist but also as an athlete.
We understand how frustrating it can be when suffering with injuries. Our focus is to get you back better than you were before your injury in the quickest time frame possible.
Below we have included some detail on common sporting injuries we see regularly in clinic.
COMMON TENDON ISSUES
It is common for runners to experience tendon injuries when building up for a race. Sudden increases in training load may cause loading issues in the glutes, hamstrings, lateral knee (runners’ knee), Achilles and plantar fascia.
Although common in runners, these types of issues can affect athlete’s novice and elite in all sports.
Tendon related pain is typically worse in the morning and painful with activities which increase load. This may be associated with swelling, heat or redness. Tendon pain exists on a spectrum from early stage tendon reactivity to later stage rupture. Each with their own management strategies and recovery rates.
If appropriate when managing tendon related pain, we like to keep our patients doing the activity they are struggling with but make modifications to load, tempo, speed etc to enable recovery. It is also important to add additional exercise stimulus to rebuild load tolerance and robustness in the tendon.
If you would like to hear more about how we can help you with your tendon pain, please get in contact with our team.
KNEE LIGAMENTOUS INJURIES
The design of the knee joint means that this joint in particular is prone to ligamentous injury in sport. The knee joint is designed to be a mobile joint to assist in gait mechanics but as it is essentially two bones stacked one of top of the other, it relies heavily on its ligaments to aid stability.
Through most movements these vital ligaments are on stretch and prevent the knee from excessive movement. In sport where movement becomes unpredictable, these ligaments are may become liable strain or rupture. These ligaments include the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), PCL (posterior cruciate ligament), MCL (medial collateral ligament) and the LCL (lateral collateral ligament).
Through experience, we have developed a robust structure to rehabilitate the ligaments of the knee. If surgery is required, we have evidence based and optimal prehabilitation and rehabilitation programmes in place to ensure our patients the best outcomes possible.
Other knee injuries (sporting) which our osteopaths at Hardiman Performance Luton help our patient’s recovery from include meniscal tears, cartilage injury knee bursitis and tendon related pain (jumpers’ knee, runners’ knee).
LATERAL ANKLE SPRAIN
A lateral ankle sprain is one of the most common sporting injuries our team of sports injury treatment specialists see at Hardiman Performance clinic Luton. This sprain, commonly termed an inversion sprain occurs when you traumatically turn over on your ankle in an inward direction.
There are varying degrees of potential damage which can occur to ligaments, bones and muscles as a result of such an injury.
Our team of sports injury treatment specialists can help to diagnose the extent of the damage and in the short term provide effective relief from pain and swelling.
More long term we can provide focussed rehabilitation programmes to get your ankle back to full health and in order to prevent further occurrences of ankle sprains.
MUSCULAR PAIN/STRAIN/RUPTURE
Muscular injuries are common in all sporting populations and depending on severity may be associated with pain, swelling, bruising, loss of function. We may typically grade such issues from 1-3, with grade 3 being the most severe injury (full rupture).
The focus of rehab should always be to appropriately load the muscle again as soon as possible for the best and quickest outcome. Research supports this notion with evidence showing that muscle injuries which are loaded at 2 days post injury as opposed to 9 days post injury, recover from injury and return to sport on average 3 weeks faster.
Depending on severity rehabilitation back to sport may take between 2 weeks and 3 months.
If you would like to know more about how we can help you with muscular pain or injury, please contact our team.
GROIN/HIP PAIN
Groin pain and injury are highly common in sporting individuals. They are particularly prominent in athletes with a history of frequent sport participation in adolescence.
Pain in the groin area can be related to many different structures and there are a variety of common groin conditions with see and treat daily in clinic. These include hernias, labral tears, psoas dysfunction, adductor tendinopathy, femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) and Gilmore’s groin.
Whatever the cause of your groin pain, our team are ready to help you get back to your best and free from injury in an optimal time frame.
