Why is my Sports Injury not getting better?

Maybe there is an underlying ligament problem that is not being addressed.

When people come into my clinic with shoulder, lower back, knee or calf pain I often end up diagnosing an underlying problem with the ligaments of surrounding joints. There can be a lot of emphasis on treating muscle imbalances but I believe even many of those have arisen out of a long-standing ligament problem and distortion pattern throughout the skeletal system.

You see, the bones of the body are held together by ligaments. Think of them as thick rubber bands that are strong so the joints don’t dislocate but can stretch so the bones can move. I believe the tension in the ligaments determine the alignment of the bones of the joints and also the range of movement available at that joint. The muscles are the movers of the bones to provide the actual joint movement.

Ligaments have a certain tension and when they are strained they react by tightening up, pulling the bones too close together or out of alignment and not allowing the normal range of motion at that joint. A good example is a twisted pelvis. When the ligaments holding the bones of the pelvis together are strained they tighten up and cause the pelvis to twist. There are a number of consequences of this:

1. The ligament itself can be irritated, and because ligaments have a strong nerve supply they can be quite painful. This is often the source of pelvic and low back pain or knee pain.
2. The twisting of the pelvis and lower spine can cause irritation to local nerves, which then become hyper-excited and over stimulate the muscles they supply eg. the Gluteal (buttock) muscles. Those muscles will tighten up and contract.
3. The twisting of the pelvis can cause the muscles on one side to lengthen and the other side to shorten. This can over time result in a chronic strength imbalance in muscles such as the Gluteals, Piriformis or Hamstrings.

The same scenario can also occur with shoulder, hip, knee and calf pain.

So what came first, the Chicken or the Egg? The Muscle imbalance or the Ligament problem?

If you want my opinion come in for an assessment, diagnosis and treatment.