“Injury-prone.” A term frequently heard in the world of sports. Sports injuries, such as recurring muscle and tendon complaints, sometimes seem to arise out of nowhere. But why do complaints develop precisely now? Why at this moment? And why are some athletes so prone to injury?
It is precisely this question that fascinates me as an osteopath. No complaint is the same. Therefore, I always examine the body as a whole, without making prior assumptions. This regularly yields surprising insights. Often, the causative structure turns out to be located in a different region than where the athlete experiences symptoms. This is exactly why, for me, there is no such thing as a standard treatment.
A while ago, I saw a 20-year-old football player with recurring hamstring complaints, alternating between the left and right side. During the examination, an increased tension in the deeper connective tissue at the level of the 10th thoracic vertebra was particularly noticeable. But then the question remains: why did that increased tension arise there? During our conversation, it emerged that he had suffered a heavy fall on a trampoline several years earlier, in which his back folded over. The body may have managed to compensate for this for a long time, until the load-bearing capacity eventually became insufficient to fully absorb the physical demands of the sport.
When it is possible to identify the maintaining factor, you often see that the body can recover surprisingly quickly. This was also the case here: after two treatments, the symptoms decreased significantly, and he was able to resume his training. In the months that followed, he remained symptom-free.
For me, this once again underlines the importance of finding the structure that truly lies at the root of the injury. At the same time, I regularly see in practice that an area where significant trauma has previously occurred can remain more sensitive to new moments of impact.
Especially within sports, where a new stimulus — such as a knee in the back during a duel — can sometimes be enough to make old compensation patterns visible once again.
Particularly within (elite) sports, this way of looking at things can be valuable, as small physical limitations can influence recovery capacity, load-bearing capacity, and performance. It is wonderful to see that more and more athletes are finding their way to osteopathy. Ultimately, the same principle remains central to me: listening to the body and remaining curious about the story behind the complaint.
