Top Ten Most Common Injuries of Athletes Part 2

6) Runner’s Knee
ACL injuries are the most known knee injury; however the most common is Runner's Knee. The medical name for it is chondromalacia patella. Runner’s knee occurs due to a misalignment of the knee cap in its grooves. Normally, the knee cap goes up and down in the groove as the knee flexes or straightens out. If the knee cap becomes misaligned, the knee cap slides to the side and rubs on the side of the groves causing the cartilage (behind and on the side of the knee cap) to wear out. If wearing occurs, then fluid can build up and cause you knee to swell. In physical therapy you would mainly focus on stretching the quadriceps, and the massage the soft tissue all the way through the knee and quadriceps. Most times aspirin will be prescribed to try and reduce inflammation.

7) Shin Splints
Shin splints are most common in any sport involving running, most times track and field. The pain comes from the muscles near your shin bone, most times cause by running on hard surfaces or overuse. A lot of people get them at the beginning of a sport because their muscles are not accustom to training. Outside of occurring when a sport starts you can also get shin splints if you switch shoes or start to do more concentrated speed work. The pain comes from the inner side of the middle third of the shin bone where the muscle is actually being pulled away from the bone. For shin splints, most physical therapy will consist of icing and stretching. The part that feels the best however is the deep massages you can do. An effective massage to relax those muscles is simply run your thumbs down the inside of your leg, right down the side of your calf next to the shin.

8) Ankle Sprain
The most common ankle sprain in sports happens when the foot rolls to the outside and strains the ligaments on the outside of the ankle. This can cause the outside of the ankle to swell and throb. After a sprain, putting weight of it can cause a lot of pain and continue the swelling. An important fact to know about ankle sprains is that as long as it is hurting on the outside of the ankle it is most likely just a sprain, no matter how bad it hurts. However if you have pain on the inside of the ankle, then you should get x-rayed it check out the possibility of a hair-line fracture. Physical therapy would consist of icing on and off, then rolling the ankle all possible ways and stretching it out.

9)Achilles Tendonitis
Your Achilles is in the back of you foot and ankle, and is the largest tendon in your body! Tendonitis is inflammation of the tendon, usually due to overuse. Most the time when the Achilles is strained it is from not warming up properly for the activity you were participating in. Tendonitis on the other hand can occur from excessive wear on the ankle and foot, which actually cause the tendon to pull off center. If you were ever to tear your Achilles tendon, it is said to feel like a gunshot to the leg.

10)Arch Pain
Arch pain in the foot is most commonly due to over-stretching or partially tearing the arch pad. Some people go their whole life without ever having trouble with their arch. Some people though who have with rigid, high arches or seem to have flat feet can have a lot of trouble. They can feel the pain when they put weight on the foot or more when you push off with that foot. The interesting thing about this injury is that you don’t have to be active at all to get it. Young kids play sports can get arch pain, and so can middle ages people who just work and aren’t active. The main way to help arch pain in physical therapy is to stretch it and massage it. The best massage technique is to hold one foot at a time, and rub your thumbs into the deep tissue of the foot in circles. Next you can rub you thumbs up and down the foot, then start in the middle of the foot and pull the tissue with your thumbs outwards towards the inside and outside of the foot.