Why Does My Injury Keep Coming Back? Understanding the Kinetic Chain

It is a frustratingly common cycle for many, you tweak a knee or hurt a shoulder, you rest it, and the pain goes away. But three months later, just as you are getting back into your stride, the exact same niggle returns.

Why does this happen? Often, it is because there is a deeper cause.

The Kinetic Chain: Your Body as a System

At Urban Health Exeter, we view your body as an integrated system, a "kinetic chain." Think of it like a stack of building blocks. If the block at the bottom (your foot or ankle) is slightly out of alignment, the blocks at the top (your knee, hip, or lower back) have to shift to keep you upright.

The pain you feel in your knee might actually be caused by stiffness in your ankle or weakness in your glutes. The problem area is merely the symptom; the answer is hiding elsewhere in the chain.

How a Biomechanical Assessment Helps

While Osteopathy is for diagnosing and treating a specific pain or injury, a Biomechanical Assessment is used to analyse your unique body movements and if they could become more efficient, lessening your risk of future injury. You may benefit from a Biomechanical Assessment: if you are concerned about posture, if you feel like your gait has altered, or you seem to have hit a plateau at your specific sport - but don’t have any particular aches or pains.

During this extensive 90-minute session, we perform:

• Static Assessment: Checking your standing posture and natural alignment.

• Functional Movement Screening: Watching how you move during key actions like squatting, lunging, and balancing.

• Muscle strength testing: Looking for any imbalances

By identifying limited range of motion or uneven muscle patterns, we can see exactly where your kinetic chain is breaking down and give you the knowledge of which areas to address.

Break the Cycle

If you are tired of recurring niggles stopping you from enjoying your run along the Quay or your weekend sport, it is time to look deeper. Don't just patch the problem, fix the pattern that’s causing it.