Overuse Injuries in Waterloo
Our Multipronged Approach to Treating Overuse Injuries
Office workers who spend hours a day typing at the computer. Baseball pitchers or tennis players overworking their shoulders. Cooks using their hands to prepare food. Assembly-line workers performing repetitive motions. They all have one thing in common-they are susceptible to overuse injuries (or repetitive strain injury), which can encompass many body parts or injuries to different body parts.
Tips for Managing Movements
Because you can’t just quit your job to avoid overuse injuries, it’s important to manage how you’re doing those repetitive motions. There are different ways to move that decrease stress to these tendons and muscles. So look at how you’re moving and going about your tasks to see if there’s a better way to do it.
Lighten the load
Decrease how much weight you carry. Let’s say you’re lifting a pile of books every 10 minutes. To avoid injury, decrease the weight of the books to reduce strain on the muscles and the tendons.
Take breaks
It’s also important to change your task so that you aren’t in a position where you do that activity all day long or as often as you are. So aim to break those tasks up throughout the day. Stretch your muscles and give your body little movement breaks, so they can get some more blood flow to that area, and get some lengths to those tissues so they can stay healthy.
Strengthen those muscles
When performing repetitive tasks, it’s important to strengthen those specific muscles used so they can withstand those regular motions you’re putting into them daily.
Listen to your body
If you start to feel minor aches and pains, listen to your body and make modifications when you can. For example, carpal tunnel syndrome starts as a RSI, and then as it progresses, it worsens. So if you experience numbness, tingling and pain in the wrists, heed those warning signs to prevent the carpal tunnel syndrome from advancing.
How We May Help You
First, we will assess the area injured and identify what structures have been injured, and then evaluate the surrounding areas to see if there are imbalances or mobility impairments that might contribute to that. Then we would come up with an individualized program based on what we find in the assessment to address the injury. Often, that results in some kind of soft tissue work to address some muscle tightness that you might have. Here are some modalities and approaches we can use:
- Joint mobilizations
- Dry needling
- Acupuncture
- A stretching and strengthening program
- Laser therapy
- Shockwave therapy
Schedule an Appointment
If you have an overuse injury, it’s important to have it addressed. We have the tools and expertise to treat your injury, so you can get back to what you love and need to do.
CONTACT US »
