‘Howzat?!’ - Cricket and Chiropractic

With the UK griped in World Cup Cricket fever at the moment, I thought it appropriate to talk about the issues that cricketers, and in particular fast bowlers, put their backs through on a daily basis.

Cricketers often suffer from 5 main injuries, and if you just look at the current England World Cup team each injury is clear to see..

1. Hamstring strain

2. Low back pain

3. Side strain

4. Shoulder pain

5. Ankle sprain

Low back pain is number 2 on the list and is a general term for any pain in the back area. The repetitive action of bowling is the biggest cause of low back pain in cricket but let’s not rule out bending to field the ball, along with standing in the field for a prolonged period. You also cannot rule out batting causing back injures, especially in the modern game with the amount of twisting and pulling a batman has to go through to get all those runs!

Any structure of the low back can be affected while playing cricket: discs, ligaments, muscles or facet joints. But it is fast bowlers - particularly young bowlers - who can suffer from low back pain the most;

‘Cricket fast bowling is a unique asymmetrical action which loads the trunk through rotation, extension and side flexion at the delivery stride. This action repeated time after time can lead to the development of acute low back pain that can then lead to stress fractures in adult and adolescent populations.’

Repeated microtrauma to the pars interarticularis is usually to blame for your pain. The pars interarticularis, or ‘pars’ for short, refers to the portion of bone between the superior (top) and inferior (bottom) articular facets of your facet joints. The facet joints are synovial joints between each vertebra in your spine. Each spinal vertebra has two facet joints (left and right). When the ‘pars’ sustains repeated microtrauma, this will lead to acute low back pain and eventually fracture - this is termed a spondylolysis.

To all those fast bowlers out there, I recommend icing the area of pain straight after you have bowled (this will reduce any inflammation in the area). Once you have done this for around 10-20 minutes have a relax and then repeat with a heat pack for the same time, allowing the muscles to relax thereby stopping any back spasms. If you are suffering from low back pain, I suggest coming to see me at the clinic so I can assess your low back - 9/10 times we can put together a chiropractic treatment plan that will stop the back pain and then we can maintain this throughout the cricket season, allowing you not to miss many games!

Unfortunately, once diagnosed with a stress fracture (we can take the x-rays on site at our Kew, Marylebone and Putney clinics), this will need a period of rest for up to 6 weeks, and with the British weather the way it is, that could be half the season.

I have first-hand knowledge of cricketing injuries as I was a fast bowler myself and have played cricket for many years, and love to see young and old perform to their highest level. Even if you are not sure if chiropractic is for you please do get in touch with me at Putney Chiropractic and if I cannot help, I can point you in the right direction.