The Most Common Spring Injuries I See
Every season tends to bring its own pattern of injuries. Winter often brings back and neck stiffness from too much sitting, and Spring is when I start seeing a wave of activity related issues.
People feel motivated again so they start moving more, which is great.
But sometimes the body hasn’t quite caught up yet. A few injuries tend to pop up again and again.
One of the most common is Achilles tendon irritation.
This usually appears when someone suddenly increases running or hill walking. The calf muscles and Achilles tendon need to absorb a lot of force with every step, and if that load increases too quickly the tendon can become irritated.
Another frequent issue is plantar fascia pain.
This often shows up in people who start doing longer walks after a relatively quiet winter. The tissue along the bottom of the foot gets overloaded and becomes sore, especially first thing in the morning.
Then there’s runner’s knee, which is more of a general term for pain around the front of the knee.
This tends to happen when hips and glutes are not providing enough support during running or walking. The knee ends up doing more work than it should.
Lower back irritation
Lower back irritation is another one that pops up quite a bit.
Sometimes this happens because people jump straight back into high intensity training without rebuilding core and hip strength first.
None of these injuries are unusual or mysterious, in fact they are usually just the body reacting to a sudden change in workload.
Think of your body like a system
Think of your body like a system that adapts to whatever you regularly ask it to do. If you gradually increase demand, it adapts and gets stronger. If demand jumps too quickly, tissues get irritated.
The encouraging part is that most of these issues respond really well to small adjustments. Reducing training volume slightly, adding a bit of mobility work, and strengthening the right muscles can often settle things down fairly quickly.
In many cases you don’t need to stop moving completely.
You just need to adjust how much and how intensely you move while the body catches up.
Spring is a great time to get active again.
It just helps to treat the first few weeks as a rebuild phase instead of a full return to peak training.
Feel like you’re in need of some guidance with your activity levels, or your recovery, please do head to my website and book yourself in at
www.astralfitness.co.uk
Thank you for reading this weeks blog, The Most Common Spring Injuries I See.
Thanks for reading,
Chloe