Overuse Injuries

Overuse injuries occur from stressing your joints, muscles, or other tissues without allowing them to recover. For example, throwing a baseball at high speeds over and over can stress your shoulder joint and cause an injury to part of that joint (the Reference rotator cuff Opens New Window). Reference Stress fractures Opens New Window, in which a bone breaks from the pressure placed on it through activity, are also common for athletes.

Overuse injuries can be caused by:

• Doing too much too soon.
• Doing intense exercise.
• Not varying your activity or exercise routine.
• Playing sports.
• Doing too much without proper conditioning.
• Not using the proper form for the activity.
• Not using proper equipment, such as wearing poorly fitting shoes.
• Doing too much of an activity at work.

For more information, see the topic:

• Reference Achilles Tendon Problems. (A sign may be pain in the back of the heel.)
• Reference Bursitis and/or Reference Tendon Injury (Tendinopathy). (A sign may be pain in the joints or tendons.)
• Reference Low Back Pain.
• Reference Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome. (A sign may be pain in the front of the knee.)
• Reference Plantar Fasciitis. (A sign may be pain in the sole of the foot.)
• Reference Rotator Cuff Disorders. (A sign may be shoulder or arm pain.)
• Reference Tennis Elbow. (A sign may be elbow pain.)

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