Did YOU know that niggles may develop into more serious injuries? One study of soccer players found that niggles caused at least triple the risk of a more serious injury over the next week. (Whalen et al, 2020)!
What are niggles?
A niggle is a mild’ish’ pain or discomfort or loss of function that is subtle and may cause slight but persistent annoyance. Although you may not have to immediately stop, niggles will likely limit your ability to perform to your max sport performance.
We have all had niggles at some stage and we know that they are sometimes temporary and resolve without intervention. Though sometimes these niggles can also be warning signs and, if ignored, can progress or lead to an injury.
How do you know if it is a niggle or an injury??
What is common/normal to feel during/after exercise?
- Soreness during or DOMs post exercise – loading your muscles maximally may feel a bit sore, especially if you are new to training and that is ok! DOMs (delayed onset muscle soreness) may occur after a heavy session and may feel like a dull ache or mild tenderness to touch.
- Some discomfort with weightbearing e.g. you are able to walk after rolling your ankle though it’s a bit sore.
- Some decreased range of motion e.g. if you did a very heavy hamstrings training session and had DOMs, you may feel you can’t stretch to your usual full ROM (range of motion), though this resolves with light exercise and/or within a few days.
- Feeling like a muscle is a little more ‘tight’ than usual.
What is abnormal to feel during or after exercise?
- Pain (especially worsening pain, night pain or pain that means you can’t sleep, pain that moves/radiates/throbs, pain that limits movement significantly).
- Being unable to weight bear at all e.g. after an ankle sprain being unable to weight bear at all on your foot or take any steps at all.
- Swelling – especially swelling that is significant in volume, develops quickly, is very localised.
- Stiffness that limits movement e.g. feeling that your lower back is so stiff that you can’t bend down to tie your shoes when you previously could.
- Limping or changed walking pattern.
What should you do if you have a niggle?
- Rest and promote recovery! Adequate sleep and nutrition and adapting training load are N.B. you may also try to do more mobility type exercises or things like hot/cold therapy.
- Review your training: did you increase the volume too much? Did you change footwear/equipment? Did you change surface (e.g. soft grass pitch to astro pitch)? Are you loading a particular muscle group or joint much more than others? Is your program balanced? Did you just have a lot of body contact/tackling during a training session/match? Do you complete appropriate warm up and cool downs? Etc etc!!
- If YOU are female, at what stage are you in your cycle? There is (thankfully!) more research ongoing into injuries in female athletes. A study on football (soccer) players in a pro club in England found that players were six times more likely in the pre-menstrual phase and five times more likely in the early-mid luteal phase to experience a muscle injury, compared to when they were in the menstrual phase.
- If the ‘niggle’ is not resolving or is worsening, have it reviewed by your local physio or athletic therapist here at YOUtherapies!
Here at YOUtherapies, our Athletic Therapist Tricia will check out your niggle and advise you how to resolve it! She will chat through predisposing factors and history and complete a physical assessment. She may recommend some hands-on treatment like massage, mobilisations, dry needling etc and will definitely give you specific rehabilitation exercises to do to try to prevent future injury!
Ref: Matthew Whalan, Ric Lovell, John A Sampson. Do Niggles Matter? – Increased injury risk following physical complaints in football (soccer). Science and Medicine in Football. 2020;4(3):216–224.
