Overuse Injuries

Overuse Injuries also known as Overuse Syndromes are injuries causing chronic irritations to a particular body part.  Though any part of the body could get affected due to overuse injuries, the parts of the body that are exposed the most are more prone to injuries, such as your feet and arms. 

Some examples of overuse injuries

• Long distance runners who run for more than 20 kilometers at a stretch are at a greater risk to contracting overuse injuries than athletes who run 400 meters at a stretch.  Long distance runners suffer from problems to their leg and hamstring muscles.

• Musicians like guitarists who play on the guitar for long duration suffer from injuries to their fingers.  These professionals complain of pain in their wrist and numbness in their hands due to excessive use of the instrument.

There are many other categories of people who can suffer from overuse injuries.  Typically, any individual who does a certain type of work for unacceptably long periods of time without a break is susceptible to overuse injuries. 

Overuse injuries could affect almost any part of the body and the shoulder is one of them.  In fact, shoulder overuse injuries have the longest healing periods.  One such overuse injury to the shoulder is Shoulder Bursitis.  Also known as Impingement Syndrome, this disorder affects the rotator cuff bone that joins your upper neck and the shoulder. 

Cases of Shoulder Bursitis are most commonly found in javelin throwers or any other professional doing a lot of overhead work.  Shoulder bursitis is characterized with excruciating pain when an individual moves his arm over head height and inflammation of the rotator cuff tendons.

 

What is the main cause of overuse injuries?

Overuse injuries are most commonly reported by individuals who do a lot of physical work without any relaxation in between.  This is also common in individuals who do the same work minute after minute without a break in between. Lack of relaxation and warm up before starting the activity has been attributed to the occurrence of Overuse Injuries.

 

How can overuse injuries be treated in an individual?

Remember, medication to treat overuse injuries is only a short-term solution.  Overuse surgeries are hardly caused due to medical conditions or chemical composition of the body.  The best treatment for an individual diagnosed with overuse injuries is for the person to take complete rest allowing the body to heal.  Individuals can avoid getting hit by overuse injuries by taking enough precautions when working.  For example, if an individual is working on the computer continuously for about 8 hours a day, he should get up from his chair and stretch his fingers and his back. 

Remember, overuse injuries happen as you have failed to take good care of your body. Nevertheless, it is not too late as you could start now.  By implementing simple techniques like relaxing for a couple of minutes and stretching during work, you could ensure that overuse injuries do not occur.