How do we assess an injury that needs physio?

At Switch the philosophy that our physios work by is to understand the pain that is being suffered, but then to spend time understanding what leads to that occurring. We don’t just treat the immediate pain, we will help you understand the underlying cause as well as how it can be prevented in the future.

The way we achieve this is by providing;

• An accurate diagnosis – this involves a comprehensive analysis of your injured area, analysis of movement patterns and assessment of factors that may have led to injury
• An agreed outcome – helps us understand your expectations as to what it is that you want to achieve. Often a gym or sport injury can impact many areas of our lives including work, recreational and family life, so although returning to sport or your gym activities are important and the primary goal, we need to look at the big picture also.
• Creating a treatment plan – this includes expected timeframe for prognosis and return to play or activity so that we reach the specific goals set out
• Physio treatment – this will often include manual therapy and a comprehensive exercise rehabilitation program which not only guides you back to sport but also helps you self-manage your injury.
• Education & prevention – helping you to understand your injury, your rehab and correct the underlying causes so you don’t have the same issues recur in the future.

Does physio speed up recovery from a gym injury?

Over the years the most common types of gym injury that we have treated include shoulder, lower back and knee injuries that are exercise induced most typically from over exertion or lifting incorrectly. Getting physio on an injury can help speed up your recovery time because we can assis with;

• Stabilisation techniques using tape or bracing.
• Manual therapy treatment for joint restrictions or stiffness.
• Active exercises to restore flexibility, strength, endurance and balance.
• Creating new movement patterns

What are the top 5 gym injuries that we treat in our physio clinics?

1. Lower back pain

Problem: David injured his back from deadlifting at the gym.

How/why: He was doing his 6th and last repetition of his 4th set before he felt a sharp twinge in his lower back as he was lifting the barbell off the ground. Back pain is one of those injuries that can happen with any movement at the gym, whether it be a big, heavy movement like a deadlift or small movement done incorrectly like a bicep curl. Your back is the “meat in the sandwich” of your body, if something isn’t moving correctly, usually your lower back will take the brunt of it. But, the lower back isn’t designed to take a massive amount of load all by itself, it needs the support of other strong body parts like your hips and thoracic spine.

Possible Solution: One core (no pun intended) part of preventing lower back pain is teaching effective breathing when lifting. This will help to improve your stability through your mid-section, to support your lower back better when you get fatigued towards the end of your set! Ask one of your physios at SWITCH about how we can help you if you’ve got lower back pain, for a full assessment!

2. Shoulder pain

Problem: John would also get a pinching sensation in his shoulder at the bottom of a bench press, push-up or a shoulder press.

How/Why: He kept pushing through it since he thought it was just a small niggle, but on his last rep, when he tried to push off, he felt a sharp pain which turned into a strong ache afterwards. Overhead presses, bench presses, pull ups are all movements which greatly involve the shoulder joint, and all movements which have resulted in injuries to a lot of clients! The shoulder is the most unstable joint in the body, but is so because its also the most mobile joint in the body. The shoulder’s ability to reach above your head is an amazing process, but is equally as technical, meaning there are many things that can go wrong. Your shoulder consists of 2 main joints (actually consists of several, but we’re going to focus on just 2), your glenohumeral joint (ball and socket joint, basically where you’d point to if someone asked where your shoulder is), and the equally as important scapulothoracic joint (the shoulder blade moving on your rib cage). Both of these joints need to be moving in sync for you to lift your arm above your head, and if one of these isn’t moving right, then you’re going to struggle to gain stability and strength!

Possible Solution: Gaining strength in your shoulder generally revolves around allowing both of these joints to move in tandem, and then linking that to the rest of the body! If you’ve got shoulder pain, it’s best to jump on it early to prevent any compensations from popping up!

3. Neck Pain:

Problem: Cathy was feeling neck and shoulder pain after the gym.

How/why: Cathy was completing her last set of the bent over barbell row exercise, giving all her effort to finish off workout. She was seen initiating the movement by throwing her head forwards then backwards. Neck pain is not the injury people think of the most when in the gym, but is usually one of the first things that tightens up following a heavy workout. The reason for this is because the gym, mixed with some sedentary work throughout the day, will result in a massive amount of muscle fatigue the next morning, especially when your body isn’t used to it. It’s also due to the fact that most people, when struggling to pump out that last rep, will tense through their neck to help them lift the weight. Not only does it look super sketchy, but it’s also not the best in terms of efficiency.

Possible Solution: Becoming more aware of your body’s position can help reduce tension through your neck muscles. If you feel the need to tense your neck muscles when doing a pulling movement, it means the weight is too heavy for you. A great cue you can use is thinking about getting pulled from the top of your head in the same angle that your body is in. This will help lengthen your body and offload your neck and shoulder muscles.

4. Knee Pain:

Problem: Jenny would always get a sharp pain in her knees when doing step-ups during her high intensity gym class. This bothers her as she has to sit out of the class for 5 mins while everyone else is working hard. She has tried to find an alternative but also feels uncomfortable when doing squats or lunges.

How/why: In the first few weeks back in the gym, people tend to overdo it on the treadmill, start squatting the weights they were doing prior to lockdown or return to a high-intensity class too fast. They then find themselves with some knee pain they’ve never had before. This is because the knee is designed to be a hinge between the hip and the foot, and with poor technique or high load, can become the spot which is overloaded!

Possible Solution: Working on the alignment of the knee is key to keeping knee pain down, so focusing on keeping the knee tracking in line with your second and third toe for all squatting type movements will help massively with knee pain. Ask us in the clinic how you can change this!

5. Elbow Pain:

Problem: Brian started to feel a dull ache pain during bench press and push-ups but thought it would go away with rest. It wasn’t until he tried doing his normal bench press weight after a few months having this dull ache pain, when he felt a sharp stab and weakness through his elbow.

How/why: For so long, elbow pain has been seen as a death sentence, and something you’re stuck for until you can get surgery or a cortisone injection, but that’s not true at all! Tennis elbow and golfers elbow are 2 sides of the same coin, regularly seen when overdoing it at the gym. Tennis elbow is more associated with the outside of the elbow (common attachment of the wrist extensors), and golfer’s elbow is associated with the inside of the elbow (common attachment of the wrist flexors). Both of these muscle groups are activated when having to grip and hold a weight, so overdoing these movements commonly can result in elbow pain popping up.

Possible solution: One reason why people tend to overload the elbow during gym movements could be because of an issue either one joint above or below the elbow. In other words, the issue could actually be coming from the shoulder or the wrist. You can also decrease the pain through a simple exercise, called isometrics.