Overuse injuries are injuries in the supporting tissue of the body. The smallest blood vessels tear and tissue is destroyed. As a result, inflammation occurs, which brings swelling and pain.
A large proportion of all endurance athletes suffer at least one injury during a season due to overuse, whereas acute injuries are rare. Runner's knee, Achillodynia, swimmer's shoulder - painful buzzwords for any athlete.
In swimming, athletes often struggle with shoulder injuries. The so-called swimmer's shoulder is not only the best-known but also the most frequently occurring injury. In the case of swimmer's shoulder, muscular imbalances occur due to a continuously too high and too long intensity, in combination with a lack of and incorrect technique, which in turn lead to incorrect position and incorrect loading of the shoulder joint. This then manifests itself in irritation with degeneration and inflammation of tendons and bursae.
In cycling, there is the particular problem that the athlete forces his movement sequences into the closed movement system of the bike - caused by fixation of both feet to the clipless pedals - which is only optimally adjusted to the biomechanics and anatomy of the leg and knee joint in the fewest cases. Knee pain while cycling is usually caused by an incorrect sitting position, too low or too high, or is triggered by pedaling at too high a ratio. This results in increased contact pressure in the patella bearing, which irritates the joint and the cartilage.
The knee joints are subjected to even greater stress when running. So-called runner's knee is caused by irritation of the tractus iliotibialis - a tendon plate that runs along the outside of the thigh to the shinbone. Long, intense runs can cause the tract to shorten and then rub against the outside of the knee above the bone.
The tissue, which is subjected to increased strain as a result, becomes inflamed and a stabbing pain occurs on the outside of the knee. Overloading of the Achilles tendon and the resulting inflammation are also usually caused by running training. Affected is either the Achilles tendon directly at the attachment to the heel bone or the sliding tissue surrounding the tendon. Inflammation occurs with the typical symptoms of inflammation: pain, swelling and overheating of the Achilles tendon.