Sports Injuries

Did you know that no two people move alike?  Not only that, but movement never lies!  People's movements tell each person's unique story of their history, compensations and adaptations. Knowing this, how can people be treated the same for injuries?  The answer is... they can't.

When you have an injury to your body, your body will avoid pain by movement adaptations.  This is because your body craves safety and stability and it will do whatever it takes to achieve that.  Any dysfunctional movement patterns then may be noticed in poor performance, increased injury decreased durability and pain.


If you are an athlete, your moves can be a powerful predictors of injury.  If you had a previous injury and
now your movement is varied (you function better on one side and not the other) this plays a role in predicting if you will be injured again.  Pain is the obvious thing people look for when they believe they are hurt or injured, but just because the pain went away, it does not mean that the injured area is now fixed and your normal movement patterns have been restored.

So how do you see if there is something wrong with your movement? 

You can, for example, have a physical therapist do a Functional Movement Screen (FMS) scoring system which will evaluate your movement efficiency using seven fundamental patterns. Once you have this done and have your results, there are various corrective exercises you can do which can restore your fundamental movements.  And there are sport-specific corrective exercises which are of great benefit to athletes, trainers, etc.  After all, athletes want to get back in the game as soon as possible so the more options they have available to them, the better.

So whether you are an athlete or not, if you have a sports injury, it is to your best benefit to seek the advice and evaluation by a sports injury specialist in order to get the best treatment plan going for you.  Your recovery will depend on it.  If you get the proper treatment you need and are able to restore as much of the normal functions to your body as possible, your body will thank you.  If you take care of your body, it will take care of you as well. 

information provided by Dr. Perry Nickelston