You will not be the first or last person to be guilty of making at least one of the following mistakes when it comes to injury. However, listening to your body and knowing when to stop are fundamental to your health and wellbeing.
Here are 6 of the more common mistakes people make when it comes to injury:
Telling yourself that it’s just a niggle
We are sure most of us have done this at some stage, especially if you are training for a goal. However, it’s vital to know the difference between a true niggle and the beginnings of an injury. If it’s stiff or sore first thing in the morning; getting worse during the day; waking you up at night then these are signs that something is definitely wrong. Depending on the severity of the injury, rest may not always be enough. Seek advice from an Osteopath or Physio to determine the extent of the issue – it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Training through pain
Continuing to train on an injury, even if you think it’s easing, will not help you in the long term. Some tendon injuries can warm up as you train, but if you continue to do this over the course of weeks or months, the damage could be far worse and in terms of severity and duration.
Not finding out why you’re injured
How many of you have Googled what your injury is? Of course finding out what your injury is will be helpful, but this will not take into account other elements such as “you”, your biomechanics and circumstances. It’s more important for you to know why the injury has happened to gain a better understanding of what to do now to get rid of it and how to prevent this in the future.
Booking a sports massage straight away
Of course Sports massages can be the perfect treatment for anyone. However, going for a sports massage with an injury that is undiagnosed or treated can in fact aggravate the injury. If you’ve got an acute muscle injury to the muscle, would you honestly want someone to go in there with deep tissue massage?
Skimping on Osteopathy exercises given to you
How many times have our patients stopped doing their exercises…and then come back with the same issue. When you visit an osteopath, the treatment is of course important. But the rehabilitation exercises are the most important element to ensure you recover in the right way. Your Osteopath is experienced in injury and will give you exercises to help your recovery. It’s also important to look at your daily habits and ensure you are incorporating fundamental movement and strengthening exercises into your routine.
Ignoring the importance of strengthening exercises.
During injury recovery, many people put too much focus on stretching and foam rolling and forget about strengthening exercises. Stretching and foam rolling can of course help with tightness, but it’s essential to find out if this tightness is due to lack of strength in other areas of your body.
For any advice or help please contact us directly