Treatment for Overuse Injuries in Bend, Oregon
Whether you are a dedicated year-round athlete, a weekend warrior, or work in the trades, your body can be susceptible to an overuse injury. Unrelated to a singular event, an overuse injury occurs due to repetitive stress on the body’s tissues over time. Without proper rest and recovery, what starts as minor pain can occur more frequently and with higher pain levels and altered ability. In severe cases, this may lead to surgery. The good news is physical therapy is particularly suited to address these presentations, facilitate healing, and return you to full function.
What are the Symptoms of an Overuse Injury?
Pain and injury can occur when too much stress is placed on a particular body part. The symptoms of an overuse injury usually appear as muscular or tendon strains, inflammation, and tissue damage.
Additional symptoms of an overuse injury may include numbness and tingling, weakness, sleep disturbance, fatigue, abnormal muscle soreness, and impaired movement and coordination.
Risk factors associated with overuse injuries:
- Training Errors: Taking on too much activity too quickly without allowing the body to adapt or rest
- Improper technique: Performing repetitive activity with inefficient or forceful movement patterns
- Job duties: performing repetitive tasks such as trade work or computer work
- Youth sports: Adolescents are at greater risk of injury due to their bodies still developing and the stress on tendon attachment sites and bone growth plates.
- Older adults: age-related changes in the body may require modifying your activity routine to allow for recovery
Overuse Injuries We Treat Our Bend OR Clinics
Some of the most common overuse injuries we treat at our east and west side Bend OR physical therapy clinics include:
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Elbow Tendonitis/epicondylitis
- IT Band Syndrome
- Osgood – Schlatters Disease
- Patellar tendonitis
- Plantar Fasciitis
- Runners/Jumpers Knee
- Rotator Cuff Tendinitis
- Sever’s Disease
- Shin Splints
- Shoulder Impingement
- Stress fractures
- Ulnar nerve impingement
How Physical Therapy Can Help With Overuse Injuries
The trick to managing an overuse injury best is to identify it early and take precautions. This will help alleviate more severe pain and prevent you from missing out on valuable time at the gym, work, or recreation. Alpine’s Physical therapists are movement specialists. When evaluating you for an overuse injury, we will perform a head-to-toe assessment of your movement patterns to identify relevant movement dysfunctions, postural imbalances, areas of weakness, and flexibility needs.
Identifying the root cause of an injury and targeting treatment to your individual presentation and goals not only facilitates your return to activity and function, it sets you up to reduce your future risk for injury or recurrence.
At Alpine, we’re pleased to offer a variety of treatments that are customized to the individual needs of our patients. Treatment for overuse injuries may include:
- Exercise Prescription
- Functional Strengthening
- Movement/Body mechanics Training
- Education/Training guidelines
- Soft tissue massage
- Instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM)
- Joint mobilization/manipulation
- Kinesiology taping
- Orthotics referral
- Modalities (Electrical Stim, iontophoresis, ultrasound)
Ready to Get Started? Finding a Physical Therapist who Specializes in Overuse Injuries in Bend, OR
If you suspect you have an overuse injury, don’t delay treatment. Thanks to Direct Access, Oregon residents can see a physical therapist for an initial evaluation without a referral. We specialize in one on one-hour long care. Just you and your PT. Always. Our goal is to get you back in action quickly, improve your ability to manage your health, and have a little fun along the way! Call our east side or west side clinic today so that we can pair you with a physical therapist best suited to your area of concern.
Learn more about Direct Access to physical therapy here.