In my line of work, I often find myself repeating the same little spiel over the course of a week to a number of clients. This is simply because a lot of the concerns that my clients have regarding their health, fitness or their body are shared, and hopefully, the perspective or knowledge that I have to offer remains consistent (at least over the course of one week!). So I figure if I am going to be repeating myself I may as well get down in writing and share it freely!
 
The topic I want to cover this time is the development if injuries and how this can be avoided. The injuries that I am referring to are really any that develop slowly over a period of time, rather than sudden onset injuries, like falling over and breaking something. I will start by stating a few paradigms that almost always ring true in the development of overuse injuries- Firstly, that injury is a symptom of a more global dysfunction and is not the cause. Secondly, treating only the symptom may provide some short term benefit but reoccurrence, or manifestation into a different injury is almost inevitable
(remember the first point- the injury is just a symptom). Thirdly, there is a difference between pain and injury, and we often get a fair old warning about potential injury in the form of pain. I better hold up there and clarify, as you may be asking, surely if I am in pain, I am injured. No, that is often not the case. The word injury implies some sort of damage to the tissue/s of the body. We can experience pain without experiencing tissue damage, so in this instance, the pain is actually a valuable message that warns us of potential tissue damage and therefore injury, if we don’t do anything about it. My final paradigm is actually the spiel that I have been giving lately. Tightness often precedes pain, and pain often precedes injury. This means that the first thing you should do when you start to notice a little niggle in the front of your knee when you walk is investigate whether there is any tightness around the knee that may be increasing compression around the knee. If there is then you can take the appropriate action in relieving this tension through stretching, self-massage or having someone else massage the appropriate areas. This is the first step, and constitutes addressing the symptom to a certain extent. The next thing to do, is ask; why did this tightness develop in the first place? Be assured there is an answer. An Exercise Physiologist or Personal Trainer should have the skills to be able to help you answer this question, or refer you to someone who can. The most broad answer I can give you is that chronic tightness develops when some aspect of our neuromuscular system is out of balance and remedying chronic injuries or pain requires exercise designed to restore balance to this system.

So the main take home points are: pain and injuries are symptoms of more global neuromuscular dysfunction, and if a health professional that you employ to help you remedy chronic pain or injury is only focusing on the precise area of injury then they are not addressing the root cause of the problem and further investigation is needed for long-term relief.