The sports season is well and truly upon us: cricket this week, golf coming up, tennis at the end of the year and all the running, swimming and cycling events scheduled for the season.
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Unfortunately, with sport comes injury and apart from trauma, the most common reason for injury is muscle imbalance.
Why do muscle imbalances occur? Muscle imbalances occur when a muscle or group of muscles are over used, creating weakness in the opposing muscles or side of the body.
A good example of this to which we can all relate is poor posture. Sitting most of the day at a desk stretches the back muscles, but the hip flexors (crossing the front of the pelvis and top of thigh) and front of shoulder muscles become short and tight.
Over time, these imbalances change posture and we end up with rounded shoulders and a posterior tilted pelvis which will cause back pain in the future and perhaps other problems.
Neck,shoulder,back,hip,&knee pain are usually symptoms of a muscle imbalance-exercise helps!http://t.co/cNmexFz6y3 pic.twitter.com/rwVJmxtgq9
— Kaye Sharp MS, PT (@sharp_PT) October 14, 2015
Weight lifters/body builders and those who frequent the gym and do not follow a balanced workout often end up overworking one area of the body, creating an imbalance. I’ve had many clients ask me if we can focus on one part of the body for aesthetic reasons which again will cause muscle imbalances and eventually injury.
For most of us, chronic pain or a niggling injury is an annoyance, but for the sportsman, athlete or even the weekend warrior, it signals at the very least a loss of form, often time out for treatment and rest and in some cases, medical intervention, resulting in a serious interruption to their season and in severe cases, it can even mark the end of their career.
Symptoms
Assuming you haven’t reached the injury stage, you will notice that some muscles are stronger than others which is only to be expected in “one sided” sports – anything where you are hitting something with something (tennis, cricket, golf, boxing, basketball, boxing, etc).
Even sports which use both sides of the body such as running, swimming and cycling can cause muscle imbalances. You will notice that some parts of the body are tighter and perhaps you feel the need to stretch those areas more.
Treatment
This brings us to the controversial subject of stretching. I’m always alarmed when I hear people recommend stretching an injured muscle.
It seems that most sports medicine therapies and techniques focus on stretching tight muscles to release them or what has become popular in recent years, use myofascial release techniques. Perhaps a better approach is to identify the weak muscles and work on strengthening them.
According to Dr John D Hasenbank, a chiropractic sports physician, “The reality is that muscle imbalances occur in patterns of threes throughout the body and are always present in sports injuries; therefore, if you only treat the area that is causing obvious pain, you’ll miss the muscles that are critical for fully resolving your condition and preventing reoccurrence.”
