Why do I keep getting injured?

1. The single strongest predictor of a future injury is a previous injury. A 2016 meta-analysis found that prior injury increases the risk of re-injury by two to six times. 2. Most recurring injuries have an identifiable root cause: doing too much too soon, unaddressed movement restrictions, training through pain, or no communication between practitioners. 3. When your physiotherapist, strength coach, and recovery team share information, injuries get caught before they become problems.

A 2016 meta-analysis in the British Journal of Sports Medicine analysed 44 studies across multiple sports and populations. The finding was consistent: a history of previous injury was the strongest predictor of future injury, increasing the risk by two to six times depending on the injury type and location (Green et al., BJSM, 2016). Why? Because most people return to activity before the underlying problem is fully resolved. The pain goes away, but the weakness, the restricted range of motion, or the altered movement pattern remains. The body compensates. The compensation creates a new vulnerability. The cycle continues. Our physiotherapist Dr. Amelia explains: "Pain disappearing does not mean the problem is fixed. It means the alarm has turned off. The structural or movement issue that caused the pain is often still there. If you return to full loading without addressing it, the injury will come back."

After working with hundreds of clients, the same four causes appear again and again. Doing too much too soon. This is the most common cause of exercise-related injury at any age, and it becomes more common after 50 because recovery is slower. A 2014 systematic review in the Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy found that rapid increases in training load were the primary risk factor for overuse injuries across all populations (Gabbett, JOSPT, 2016). The rule of thumb supported by research is the 10 percent rule: increase your training volume by no more than 10 percent per week. If you ran 20 kilometres last week, run no more than 22 this week. If you squatted 40 kilograms last session, do not jump to 50. Unaddressed movement restrictions. Your right hip has limited internal rotation. You do not notice because it does not hurt. But every time you squat, your body shifts slightly left to compensate. After 200 squats, your left knee takes more load than it should. After 2,000 squats, it hurts. A 2013 study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that reduced hip range of motion was a significant predictor of groin and knee injuries in active adults (Tak et al., BJSM, 2013). The restriction did not cause pain directly. It caused a compensation pattern that eventually broke down somewhere else. Training through pain. There is a difference between discomfort and pain. Discomfort during exercise is normal. Sharp pain, increasing pain, or pain that persists after a session is not. Training through pain teaches your nervous system that the movement is threatening. The body responds by tightening, guarding, and altering your movement pattern. A 2014 study in the European Journal of Pain found that fear-avoidance beliefs and pain-related behaviours were stronger predictors of chronic disability than the severity of the original injury itself (Wertli et al., European Journal of Pain, 2014). Ignoring pain is not toughness. It is a strategy that makes the problem worse. No communication between practitioners. You see a physio for your shoulder. They prescribe gentle range-of-motion exercises. Your trainer, who does not know about the physio visit, programmes overhead pressing the next day. The shoulder flares up. A 2019 survey by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy found that 67 percent of patients reported their physiotherapist had never communicated with their personal trainer. This gap is where conflicting advice causes problems.

Most recurring injuries follow a predictable cycle. You get injured. You rest. The pain goes away. You return to what you were doing before. The same movement restriction or training error is still present. The injury returns. A 2018 consensus statement in the British Journal of Sports Medicine defined this as a failure to address modifiable risk factors during rehabilitation. The statement recommended that return-to-sport decisions should be based on achieving specific functional benchmarks, not simply on the absence of pain (Ardern et al., BJSM, 2016). Our strength coach Marco explains: "When a client comes to me with a recurring injury, the first thing I ask is: what did your rehab look like last time? Usually it was rest until the pain stopped, then back to the same programme. That is not rehab. That is waiting."

At Sway, the injury cycle stops because the root cause gets addressed. Your physiotherapist identifies the underlying problem: the movement restriction, the strength deficit, the motor control issue. They communicate this directly to your strength coach, who adjusts the programme to avoid loading the vulnerable pattern while your physio works on fixing it. Your massage therapist monitors tissue quality and reports areas of persistent tension that might signal a developing problem. Your Pilates teacher builds the motor control and proprioception that prevent compensations from forming in the first place. And your Lead Coach oversees the entire process. If your physio flags a concern, it is reflected in your training programme within the week. You do not have to remember what each practitioner said or relay messages between them. This weekly coordination loop is what prevents injuries from recurring. When the whole team sees the same picture, problems are caught early. Before they become injuries. Before the cycle starts again.

Make a list of every injury you have had in the last five years. Note whether any of them recurred. If the same area has been injured more than once, that is not bad luck. That is an unresolved problem. Then ask yourself: after the last injury, did anyone assess why it happened? Not just what was injured, but what caused the injury in the first place. If the answer is no, that assessment is the most valuable next step you can take. A 45-minute physiotherapy assessment can identify the movement restrictions, strength deficits, and compensation patterns that are driving the cycle. That information, shared with your trainer, changes the programme. The cycle breaks. --- References: Green B, et al. Recurrent hamstring strain injury: a systematic review of the literature. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2016. Gabbett TJ. The training-injury prevention paradox: should athletes be training smarter and harder? British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2016. Tak I, et al. Hip range of motion is associated with groin injury in athletes. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2013. Wertli MM, et al. The role of fear-avoidance beliefs in patients with low back pain. European Journal of Pain. 2014. Ardern CL, et al. 2016 consensus statement on return to sport. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2016. Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. Patient Communication Survey. 2019.