Kamloops Physiotherapy is proud to be supporting the Scotties Tournament of Hearts being held in Kamloops from February 17-26, 2023. With this in mind, I wanted to highlight some common curling injuries.
You may think that curling seems like a safe sport, and generally you’re right!
When it comes to winter sports, curling seems to be one with few associated injuries.
That being said, there is always risk of injury. Curling does require a lot from your body. Swinging a 40 lbs rock, moving into a deep lunge while sliding on ice and vigorous sweeping. These all come with their own sets of demands on our body.
Overall, the majority of curling injuries happen due to overuse, and rarely occur due to slipping and falling. It’s not uncommon to see pain arise in the knees, spine, shoulders, and hips.
The “Tuck”
The tuck is the deep lunge position used when delivering a stone. It can place a lot of strain on the hips, knees, ankles, and can also work the back. This can be especially pronounced in recreational curlers who may have a more difficult time maintaining regulated movement speed and balance control compared to competitive curlers.
Sweeping
Sweeping can put a lot of load on the spine, shoulders, and wrists. Repetitive movements on the same side, with a lot of force can lead to overuse.
While injury prevention is never perfect, we can always try to have our body ready for the sport specific demands.
Warm up:
A good warm up can make sure our knees and hips are ready to bend, our back isn’t feeling to stiff, and our shoulders are prepared to sweep.
Range of motion:
Making sure our joints have enough range is important, tight muscles in the calves, glutes, and hip flexors may make it more difficult to get into the best tuck position possible.
Strength:
Ensuring our quads, hips, back muscles, core, and shoulders have enough strength can help minimize the risk of overuse strain and help us control our bodies better in the tuck position and while sweeping.
When talking to Catherine Bolton, one of our senior physiotherapists and an avid curler, her keys for warm up included:
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- Body weight squats and lunges to warm up the leg joints and muscles
- Arm circles and cross body stretching
- Leg kicks/swings forward and sideways
- Trunk twists with arms swinging or broom held behind back
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As always, our goal at Kamloops Physiotherapy is to enable you to live life to the fullest, help maintain your body, and recover quickly from any injuries that do arise.
If you have any questions you can visit out website or give us a call at 250-314-0788
This blog was written by Tim Schmidt, MPT, with references adapted from:
If you would like to book an appointment with Tim or one of our other therapists, call the clinic at (250) 314-0788.
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