Overuse injuries are caused by repetitive strain or force and can affect joints or muscles. Examples include tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and crodromalacia. Treatment involves rest and addressing underlying issues. Chronic injuries may require surgery.
Overuse injuries are injuries to joints or muscles caused by repetitive strain or force. For example, activities such as running place a large amount of force through the knee joint with each step, which can lead to injury. Overuse injuries are sometimes known as cumulative trauma disorder as they do not occur at one point in time but accumulate over time. Examples of overuse injuries include tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome and tennis elbow.
Repetitive strain injuries can be caused by any movement that repetitively strains a muscle. For example, carpal tunnel syndrome affects the wrist and occurs when a person spends too much time at a computer or desk with the wrist in the wrong position. This causes micro-trauma within the muscles and tendons which, over time, develop into an overuse injury.
Many overuse injuries can be treated with rest. Continuing to perform the same action will only make the problem worse. For this reason, repetitive strain injuries are particularly difficult for athletes to deal with as training must be reduced or modified until the problem goes away. Repetitive strain injuries like wrist tendonitis are also a common reason people who work on computers take time away from work.
Overuse injuries can also affect your joints. For example, crodromalacia is a degeneration or irritation of the underside of the kneecap, which can be caused by poor patella tracking and repetitive movements such as running. Generally, if a part of the body has to work in such a way that you are unable to rest for an extended period of time, an overuse injury will occur in that region of the body.
In some cases, an overuse injury can occur because another part of the body isn’t working properly. For example, ankle injuries can sometimes be caused by tight calf muscles that place strain on the joint. For this reason, treatment of overuse injuries doesn’t always focus on the region itself, but instead on the parts of the body that can affect it.
Chronic overuse injuries often occur when a person continues to perform the activity that caused the problem. For example, if a runner continues to run despite having patellar tendonitis, this could eventually lead to permanent degeneration of the tendon. When chronic injuries occur, rest may not completely resolve the problem and surgery may be required.
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