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Overuse injuries in teens occur when there is repeated micro-trauma to bone, muscle or tendon which has not had enough time to heal properly as a result of doing "too much, too fast and too soon." Areas that are commonly...
Overuse injuries in teens occur when there is repeated micro-trauma to bone, muscle or tendon which has not had enough time to heal properly as a result of doing “too much, too fast and too soon.” Areas that are commonly affected are the shins, knee, shoulders, hips and elbows. You might have heard words such as shin splints, jumper’s knee, thrower’s shoulder or tendonitis.
Teens are more at risk because their bones, muscles and tendons that are undergoing rapid growth and are more susceptible to the micro-trauma due to a rapid turnover of tissue.
There are risk factors which include:
Your teen athlete might have one or more of these risk factors, but as a rule, the more of these factors your child has, the more likely an injury will happen. The earlier the injury is noticed, the better. The severity of the overuse injury your teen is facing, can be recognized by when the pain comes on with activity. The stages from early to latter are as follows:
The best cure, is in fact prevention, and the following simple advice can go a long way to keeping your teen overuse injury free:
If you are struggling with an overuse injury with your teen you should rest but equally important is rehabilitation to reduce the forces on the injured area. This can be done with strengthening, stretching and physical therapy. Our physical therapists and Above and Beyond Physical Therapy will help with this and help your teen athlete recover from overuse injuries and get back in the game. Contact us today.