Teenagers - leg pain - and sports
We often see frustrated 10-17 year olds (and parents!) in the clinic, who are performing below their best at sport, or sitting out all together due to pain in their legs or back.
Team sports are important for social connections and fun, physical development and relationship development, so it's no surprise kids and teenagers hate it when they can't get on the field or can't perform at their best!
Why do sporty kids and teenagers get leg and back pain?
Lack of consistency:
- Here is another thing we can blame COVID for!
- Over the second half of last year most team sports came to a halt, followed by school holidays.
- With return to school, many kids and teenagers were keen to make up for lost time (mine included!) and got back into multiple sports, multiple days per week, along with running around at school with their friends.
- De-conditioning from the long rest last year, followed by sudden increase in activity is a common cause of many musculoskeletal pains and injuries
Growth and development:
- Growing bones are soft, and tendons in active kids can pull hard on these soft bones and lead to problems like "Sever's Disease" (ankle) and "Osgood-Schlattar's Disease" (knee). Although scary sounding, these are typically mild problems that can be managed by a physiotherapist
- Sometimes growth spurts mean bones get longer quickly, and muscles and tendons struggle to grow at the same rate! This can lead to pain in knees, calf muscles, achilles tendons, ankles or low back when kids are very physically active.
If pain or niggles are stopping your kids or teenagers from doing the things they love and being part of the team, we are always available to assess the issue, and help get them back to having fun and performing at their best!