Find what makes an overuse injury hurt more

Do less of the task that brings the ache

You may not need to stop moving altogether. Shorten the painful task and keep daily motions that still feel comfortable.

If five games hurt, try fewer and notice how the joint feels tomorrow. When hills cause soreness, choose level ground until ordinary walking feels settled.

Don't treat one good morning as proof that you're ready for full effort. A sore muscle or tendon may feel calm before it handles a long session.

Build strength without making tomorrow worse

Steady exercise can help your arm or leg handle ordinary use. Choose an effort that doesn't cause a sharp rise in soreness later.

Change only the time, hills, or effort during one trial. Then you'll know which change caused trouble if the ache returns tomorrow.

Rest matters after several demanding days close together. It isn't a setback to leave space between a long round and heavy lifting.

Bring questions about the task that still hurts

Ask why the same task keeps bringing the soreness back. During an exam, the person examining you checks tender areas, motion, swelling, and strength.

After that exam, the Peoria team at QC Kinetix can discuss regenerative treatments, or non-surgical care made there with blood taken from you. The visit can also cover the full bill and time away from your routine.

Seek care sooner when the joint gives way or can't hold your weight. Sudden weakness or a hot, red joint with fever isn't ordinary overuse soreness.

Sources

1. Tendinopathy is described in the Nature Reviews Disease Primers review as a complex, multifaceted tendon pathology - disorganised collagen fibres, increased microvasculature and sensory nerve ingrowth, dysregulated matrix homeostasis, increased immune cells and inflammatory mediators, and enhanced cell apoptosis - most commonly affecting the rotator cuff, the medial and lateral elbow epicondyles, the patellar tendon, the gluteal tendons and the Achilles. The authors state plainly that management consists of exercise and loading programmes, therapeutic modalities and surgery, and that their effectiveness 'remains ambiguous'.

   Millar NL, et al. — Tendinopathy.. Nat Rev Dis Primers, 2021. DOI: 10.1038/s41572-020-00234-1.

2. Biopsies from 891 spontaneously ruptured tendons were compared with 445 tendons taken from people who had died accidentally. NOT ONE ruptured tendon had a healthy structure, and 97% of the changes found were degenerative. The same degenerative changes appeared in 34% of the control tendons - far less often - and the authors concluded that degenerative change is common in the tendons of people over 35 and is associated with spontaneous rupture.

   Kannus P, et al. — Histopathological changes preceding spontaneous rupture of a tendon. A controlled study of 891 patients.. J Bone Joint Surg Am, 1991.

3. The training-injury prevention paradox argues that non-contact soft-tissue injuries are not caused by training as such but by an inappropriate training programme - specifically by excessive and rapid INCREASES in load - and that athletes accustomed to high chronic training loads have fewer injuries than athletes training at lower loads. Under-training may itself raise injury risk. The paper proposes the acute:chronic workload ratio as a way of capturing that.

   Gabbett TJ — The training-injury prevention paradox: should athletes be training smarter and harder?. Br J Sports Med, 2016. DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2015-095788.

4. A systematic review of long-distance runners found the incidence of lower-extremity running injury ranged from 19.4% to 79.3% depending on the population and definition, with the knee the predominant site. There was STRONG evidence that a long weekly training distance in men and a history of previous injury were risk factors - and, counterintuitively, that an increase in weekly training distance was protective against knee injuries specifically.

   van Gent RN, et al. — Incidence and determinants of lower extremity running injuries in long distance runners: a systematic review.. Br J Sports Med, 2007. DOI: 10.1136/bjsm.2006.033548.

5. A ten-year analysis of the US National Electronic Injury Surveillance System covering adults aged 55 and over in 12 popular non-contact and limited-contact sports found 5,561 cases, a national estimate of 287,255 injuries. Golf (22.8%), pickleball (17.0%), tennis (13.4%) and weight lifting (12.9%) accounted for most of them. Sprains and strains were most common overall (56.9%), but fractures predominated in pickleball, tennis, baseball and soccer, fracture risk rose steeply with age, and pickleball injuries increased 925% since 2014, overtaking golf as the highest-incidence sport in recent years.

   Qi A, et al. — Sports-Related Orthopaedic Injuries in the Older Athlete: A 10-Year NEISS Database Analysis.. Orthop J Sports Med, 2025. DOI: 10.1177/23259671251360439.

6. A NEISS analysis of pickleball injuries from 2012 to 2021 found 53,649 weighted cases. Players aged 65 and over accounted for 83% of injuries, though the younger group's annual rate of increase was higher. Slips, trips, falls and dives caused 64.3% of injuries. Older players were about three times more likely to sustain fractures (OR 2.96) and to be injured by a fall (OR 2.75); younger players were more likely to sustain strains and sprains (OR 1.86) from sudden stops and lunging.

   Kulkarni R, et al. — Epidemiology of pickleball injuries by age group treated in emergency departments in the United States.. Phys Sportsmed, 2025. DOI: 10.1080/00913847.2025.2539062.

7. The 2023 IOC consensus on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport describes a syndrome of health and performance consequences in female and male athletes exposed to low energy availability - inadequate energy intake relative to exercise energy expenditure - and introduces updated health, performance and physiological models plus a revised clinical assessment tool. More than 170 original research publications had appeared since the 2018 statement, including emerging data on low carbohydrate availability and on the interplay with mental health.

   Mountjoy M, et al. — 2023 International Olympic Committee's (IOC) consensus statement on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs).. Br J Sports Med, 2023. DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2023-106994.