Acute injuries happen suddenly with a clear cause, a sprained ankle from running, a torn muscle from excessive load. Chronic injuries develop gradually from repeated loading without adequate recovery, like runner's knee or tennis elbow, and often have no single clear 'moment' it happened.
Acute injury treatment focuses on controlling initial inflammation and protecting newly injured tissue. Chronic injury is different, recurring inflammation is actually part of the problem, so the approach leans toward fixing the movement pattern or training load that's the root cause, not just repeatedly easing symptoms.
A common mistake: fully resting a chronic injury whenever pain flares up, then returning to the exact same intensity and training pattern once it settles. Without changing the loading pattern that's the root cause, chronic injuries tend to recur.
Physiotherapists treat chronic injuries by analyzing movement patterns and training load holistically, not just the painful area, the source of the problem is often a different joint or muscle that's changed how the body moves.
