Sporty kids and adolescents are often clocking up a high number of hours in many different sports, all while still doing the important business of growing!

There are many musculo-skeletal conditions unique to young people, those that like to exercise for recreation or at a competitive level. While some kids tend to focus on one or two sports, it is not unusual for others to be involved in multiple activities with intensive schedules and little recovery time.

Although exercise has undeniable benefits, sometimes the body struggles to keep up with demand, and after a while injuries start to occur at an alarming frequency or an injury just can’t heal. There is a whole list of reasons as to how and why this happens, many of which can be addressed in physiotherapy.

Excessive and imbalanced training during the growth or height spurt of a young athlete can lead to significant negative developmental consequences and long-term injury problems.

Our Chartered Physiotherapists are experienced in guiding athletes through this time of physical adaption regarding the introduction of resistance training, load management, flexibility training and adequate nutritional intake. We really see the value of this here in our clinic and athletes can now also benefit from functional movement screening (FMS) during this time to address any joint restrictions or muscle imbalances (see Functional Screening and Injury Prevention).

If you have any questions about injuries in the sporting adolescent, or training load advice for this age group, please call the clinic on 056-7788990