Musculoskeletal Injury Archives - Page 2 of 2

How to Manage Niggles

Persistent niggles that linger throughout a sports season are common. There are strategies for managing that can help you through the remainder of a season, as well as addressing them during the offseason to prevent their recurrence the following year.

Minor injuries, or “niggles,” might not be severe enough to stop you from playing, but they often become more noticeable as the season progresses. You may start to feel them earlier in games, notice them longer after games, or find yourself avoiding certain activities during training or daily life. When is the right time to start taking these signs seriously?

Niggles should be addressed as soon as you start to notice them. When you start to feel pain or discomfort, it’s your body’s way of telling you there is an imbalance between training load and your body’s tolerance. If this is addressed early on, there are some simple strategies you can employ to allow the body to recover, and avoid too much disruption to your training.
Some ways you can modify load when feeling a niggle are;

Reduce playing minutes in a game
Rotate positions throughout a game to allow recovery within a game
Change the surfaces you’re training on
Eg. Run on grass instead of concrete, or vary the shoes you train in
Increase the amount of recovery your are completing
Eg. prioritise sleep and nutrition, increase mobility, prioritise rehab exercises, strategies such as ice, compression, resting throughout the day
Modify training sessions by replacing more intense drills/game scenarios with rehab exercises or skill practise

There are plenty of ways to still be involved in training and to focus on performance, whilst allowing the body to recover from overload.

How do we avoid niggles?

If you participate in sport, niggles are inevitable. The unpredictability of intensity and load in games makes it difficult to completely prepare. However as mentioned above, niggles can be managed so that they don’t result in missed games. And more importantly, adequate preparation leading into a season will significantly reduce the incidence and severity of these niggles.

How do we prepare?

1. Strength
2. Fitness
3. Skill and game practise

Strength happens in the offseason, when training loads are lower and there is more time for your body to recover.
To allow maximal strength gain, exercises need to be heavy and challenging. There should be a large focus on technique, and movements should replicate those that are apparent in your sport.
For example, running requires high levels of calf strength, therefore an off season running strength program should involve a number of variations of heavy calf raises.
A swimming or water polo off season program will involve lots of overhead shoulder strengthening exercises.
And contact sports such as rugby or AFL will involve lots of core strength, and explosive power-based exercises to reduce the incidence of concussions and to prepare the body for contact.

2. Fitness
Will often occur in a pre-season block. This helps the body prepare for the amount of running volume that occurs within a season, and ensures the body can withstand the length of the season. Pre-season fitness programs will often replicate plays in a game, eg. 50m sprints for rugby winger, or short sharp 15m sprints for a netball wing attack. Or they will target the energy systems needed to complete an event eg. anaerobic fitness for a 200m track sprint, or aerobic fitness for a triathlon.

3. Skill and game practise will occur as the season approaches, to ensure the body is prepared for the specific movements and demands of the sport.

There a plenty of ways to manage niggles and still be involved in training and play.

Do you find yourself asking, “why is my hip sore?” … You’re not alone!

Approximately 10% of the population grapple with hip pain, a figure that tends to rise as we age.

Pain in this region can originate from multiple structures and so gaining an accurate diagnosis from your physiotherapist can narrow down the cause of your pain… is it muscle, tendon, ligament, cartilage or bone?

It’s all in the assessment:

Determining the source of your hip pain begins with a comprehensive assessment.

When you first present to your physiotherapist with hip pain, they will take a thorough history to try and narrow down the potential sources of your hip pain.

From there, they will run through a series of tests and movements to stress different structures in your hip and try to elicit your pain.

They may need to send you for more scans or tests on the hip or they may have enough information to start you on a treatment and rehabilitation plan!

Let’s delve into some of the questions your physiotherapist might pose (and why!):

Locating the Pain: Can you precisely pinpoint the area of your hip that’s causing discomfort? Identifying the specific location aids in narrowing down potential culprits, whether it’s anterior (at the front), lateral (on the side), or posterior (in the back) hip pain.

Age Matters: How old are you? Different age groups are predisposed to distinct hip pain diagnoses. For instance, certain injuries are more prevalent in children and adolescents, such as Legg-Calve-Perthes and Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis, respectively. Labral tears are more common in adolescents to older adults and osteoarthritis is more common in older athletes.

Onset of Pain: Did your pain start suddenly or gradually over time? E.g. when it comes to a muscle or tendon injury, acute mechanisms hint at muscle or tendon tear, whilst a gradual onset suggests overuse tendinopathy. The ability to differentiate between a tear and tendinopathy will not only guide your diagnosis but also your management and timeframes for your return to activity!

Associated Symptoms: Are there accompanying symptoms like clicking, catching, snapping, or limping? Whilst some hip pain and associated symptoms point more towards a hip joint injury, hip pain can also be caused by lower back and pelvic injury and so your physiotherapist will also need to assess these areas as well as your hip!

If you’re grappling with hip pain, reach out and let one of our hip pain physiotherapists establish a diagnosis and your plan of management!