When patients first consult with a clinician for evaluation and treatment, they want to know the answer to three questions.
1. How did this happen to me?
2. Why is it not going away?
3. How can I prevent it from coming back?
To answer those questions, we first need to understand the concept of load vs. capacity. I explain to my patients that all musculoskeletal injuries are the result of an imbalance between the load you place on your body and your body’s capacity to handle the load. When the load exceeds your body’s capacity, you sustain injury.
Broken bones, sprained ankles and torn ligaments are examples of healthy tissue (normal capacity) that are subjected to excessive load during a single-event. In these examples the magnitude of the load is sufficient to tear or break the tissue and you end up with an acute, traumatic injury. Fortunately, these types of injuries are infrequent.
The more common injuries occur when weakened tissue is subjected to normal loads, which over time causes an injury. The weakness in the tissue develops as a result of your daily load slightly exceeding your tissue capacity, which occurs over a period of months or years. You’ll recognize this happening when you’re doing activities that you’ve always been able to do and sustain an injury for no apparent reason. For example, 97% of Achilles tendon ruptures happen because the tissue is degenerated. The patient is often completely unaware of the degeneration. Think about it, should performing a task that you always do really cause something to break?
Some common examples of the load we place on our body everyday for years include, sitting in your car or on the train while commuting 45 minutes each way to work, sitting at your computer for 8 hours a day, as well as performing repetitive tasks throughout the day. Our body develops dysfunction in response to this load vs. capacity imbalance. It is these dysfunctions that weaken or reduce our body’s capacity. The most common dysfunctions that clinicians treat are muscle weakness, spinal joint stiffness and scar tissue in muscle. Effective manual treatment by a skilled clinician reduces dysfunction, restoring normal capacity to the body. The patient may also have to reduce their load while being treated until their capacity has been adequately restored.
Your Joint Ventures’ clinician will prescribe a self-care program designed just for you to follow up with at home. Your program may include exercising, stretching and joint mobilization to maintain the progress you’ve achieved while under care and to help prevent recurrences.
If you have any questions about Load vs. Capacity, please contact Dr. Pete Viteritti, Joint Ventures’ Sports Chiropractor @ drpete@jointventurespt.com .