Hi all! A few of us, old or young, are suffering some sorts of injuries because of badminton. Common badminton injuries include wrist pain, patellar tendonitis (jumper's knee), shoulder pain, back pain, ...... I am starting this thread for us to share ways that help heal and prevent these injuries. Here is my story. I have knee problem (patellar tendonitis or jumper's knee) for a long time. I have been using specially designed knee straps (McDavid Jumper's Knee Strap at Sports Authority) for a few years. I believe they help reduce pain as well as heal my injury. I also have back and shoulder problems. I still haven't found anything good yet. I sometimes take Ibuprofen before and during play to ease the pain. Ibuprofen also seems to reduce back inflammation very effectively. However, you should not take ibuprofen for a very long period of time. Heard about growth hormone which can help in such cases, what do you think? any experience? Your stories?
Hi, I've also use my patellar straps and they do really help in playing and preventing injury, regarding the back and shoulder, I think the hitting technique will help the most, for me, I always try to find the most comfortable way of hitting, it shouldn't hurt or feel akward when u swing ur racket, try to throw shuttle as far and high as you can using the whole body, at least thats how I calibrate my hitting technique. regarding the shoulder, Badminton is a sport where u use your front deltoid (swinging racket) more than the rear deltoid, from many uses, the front deltoid will be developed more than the rear thus creating inbalanced deltoid. The injuries happened when all ur joint are moved toward the fron deltoid, resulting in pinched nerve in near deltoid or even a tear in ur rotarry cuff. normally when u had injury somewhere else in your body, your body will tensed up without u realizing it, a tight grip commonly causes an injuries. whenever a round is finished, I always held my racket upside down so i remember myself to relax my hand.
This season (my first) I experienced back pain in October, shin splits in January and muscular shoulder pain around mid April. All those injuries were not solved until I reinforce the muscles or zone concerned. Solved the back pain after doing daily yoga exercices for the back and some fitness exercises, without weight, to reinforce it. Solved the shin splits after 3 months dealing with intense pain at each sessions (stopping for 2 weeks was worst) by doing some daily simple stretchings and fitness exercices to reinforce the calves. Solved the shoulder injury which was caused by intense smashing drills by reinforcing the shoulder with daily exercices. I always warm up/cool down for a solid 15/15minutes every sessions. What I learned this year is that reinforcing and/or stretching the affected zone of my body is the best way to solve minor injuries and eventually prevent the more serious ones. And for sure trying to use the proper technique for each strokes and movements on court. That being said everyone and every injury is different.
Strengthening and conditioning the body is very important to injury prevention. Most of us live a sedentary lifestyle and only exercising during free time, which makes us very prone to injuries. For badminton, it's mostly the back, shoulders, elbows, wrist, knees and ankles. So as far as possible, do some light exercises daily that target those areas or at least on alternate days before badminton. Personally I do the exercises recommended by coach and physiotherapist daily, only skipping on days where I have trainings or play. This has kept me relatively injury free so far. Also, as far as possible, use the proper technique. Ever since I have shoulder injury, a correction of my techniques + strengthening and conditioning has prevented a relapse of my shoulder problem. As for medication, personally I suffer from side effects of NSAIDs, so I don't take it. Neither is it recommended for long term, because it can cause problems. I believe your doctor or pharmacist will advise the same. You should seek a doctor or physiotherapist's advice if the pain is bothering you. They should be able to advise you on what to do to improve it.
I had a lot different injuries. Achilles tendonitis, shin splints, jumpers knee, problems with my shoulder, rupture of my muscle of the calf and I damage my ulnar nerve. For the jumpers knee, the strap just helped me to be mostly painless during play, but just killing the pain, don't help you to recover. Best thing is to see a doctor first. Go to 2 different ones, if you are not sure. I got rid of it, due a break, medicine and stretching/strengthen. Since I decided to play with more quality and 100% instead of going as often as possible alot has changed. I also warm up properly some club mates will laugh that you will take the warm-up to serious, but I don't care. This means that I'm warm, when I start to sweat. On off-days I do Yoga or mobilty exercises and stretching. I can't recommend stretching before playing. If you need it do it dynamic, gentle and slightly. Stretch more intense when you cool down. For really intense stretching, I recommend to cancel any sports for 2 days. Start your warm up and the first hits very slowly. Don't do hasty movements at the beginning. It's better to run slower instead of too fast. Don't hit too deep and just with 50% of force. Give your body the time to get prepaired for the game. I play atm 2 times, seldom 3 times per week. Since the 6 of 7 days with badminton are over, the rate of injury got back as well. I cycle 1-2 days per week and do moderate weight lifting once a week. I can give you the advice not to experiment with medicine without a doctor. Especially Ibuprofen can be more harm than good. There are different kinds of medicine out there which is not easy to access, but 1000 times better for your injuries than Ibuprofen. Pain is the signal of your body, that something is not right. It's better to miss 6-8 weeks of training instead of taking pills to play. During winter I use a warming gel for my muscles. Especially for shoulder and forearm.
Healing: - pause - icing (straight after injury) - NSAIDs - good blood circulation helps - moderate activity Preventing: - good warmup - good technique - slowly increasing the amount of play - slowly increasing the intensity of play (not always possible) - resting once in a while
Elbow issues (tennis elbow especially) are generally caused by poor technique where the player uses the arm to power racket speed causing necessary arm strain. Players should be taught to generate power using the kinetic chain and not so much about the details of the end result. I hear advice to use "wrist" or "pronation" or "scratch back with racket" passed around which doesn't build the proper hitting foundations for beginners. Shoulder issues are often caused by impingement by trying reaching very high on a swing with the torso still perpendicular to the ground. I believe this is caused by interpreting the advice "hit the shuttle at the highest point" incorrectly. The shoulder cannot be swung forward in this way without damage. Sore ankles caused by improper footwear. Back injuries caused by a weak back. I had a weak back due to having a computer desk job and never did any back strengthening exercises. I now deadlift heavy weights every week and have not had a back injury since. This also resulted in the added benefit of being able to move faster and hit harder as the whole body is much stronger and more balanced. As for general injury prevention, I want to emphasize this point - if you want to play badminton with high effort you need to do HEAVY strength training and conditioning. Badminton will really stress the body and any muscular imbalance or weakness will reveal itself in an injury. Finally, I disagree with taking pain medication and using mechanical supports during play (unless for injury recovery) because they are for masking the symptoms and not solving the cause.
