Ciaran Pender Injury Clinic

30/06/2026

Half a year in, here’s some highlights (and lowlights!)

Lost an appendix in January.

Recovered in time to get battered by the CrossFit open.

Enjoyed every second of working with the Wexford senior hurlers - despite the weather and results.

Rehabbed 100s of clients, helping each person hit their performance and life goals where possible.

Hit some PBs in the gym. And some big fails.

🇦🇺 After a year of planning finally got to Oz in April. What a country. Sydney, Byron, Noosa, K’gari. Road trips, skydives, good food and good people. 10/10

Back to reality into May, hitting the ground running clinically and straight back in with Wexford in the championship. Didn’t go to plan but valuable experience gained. Also turned 30 but there’s no photo evidence of that so it didn’t happen as far as I’m concerned.

June was for CrossFit, concerts and training these dogs. And of course club championships started, so busy as ever.

To the next 6 months 🤝

28/06/2026

You’re being lied to. And the worst part?

Deep down you know you are.

It genuinely annoys me how many people are sold the snake oil of passive treatments being the only way to resolve injury.

Do they have their place?

Yes definitely.

Will they get you back on the pitch?

If paired with pure rest and enough time, yes. But the time resting is doing the heavy lifting there.

Will you stay injury free on return?

Almost certainly not.

We need to change the narrative around return to play for the average athlete.

Stop the nonsense of only listening to what you want to hear.

That a magic needle is going to restore your full hamstring function.

That getting some electromagnetic wave put through your Achilles will let you be able to handle 3 sessions of running and sport a week.

We’re better than that.

Do some strength and rehab

Increase the capacity of your muscles

Improve how you move.

Be a better athlete.

athlete

26/06/2026

Sun is shining

Championship is starting

Let’s get rehab right this year and not stop doing strength work for 12 weeks and wonder why we’re injured

And please don’t be the idiot who listens to a physio who says ‘rest for a week and see how you get on’

We’re better than that.

08/06/2026

Load them tendons.

Without load tendons don’t respond.

The pain might settle but the function hasn’t changed.

And you go back to sport

Only to be right back at the beginning when it kicks off again.

Loading the tendon allows adaptation.

But getting the load right at the right time is key.

If you’re struggling with tendon pain give me a DM here and we can run through your specific case and give some tips 🤝

20/05/2026

Don’t rest tendons

That is all.

13/05/2026

Online Bookings now Available! penderrehab.com
- High level injury assessment
- Rehab planning to get you back to what you enjoy
- Sports massage

Expert rehab and injury assessment services to help you move better, feel better, and perform better. Personalized plans designed for your goals in Wexford and Carlow

16/04/2026

When it comes to rehabbing an injury, there are basically two roads you can take.

The first is the safe one.

Modify training heavily, pull back from whatever’s aggravating it, protect the area and let it settle.

It’s steady, it’s predictable, and for a lot of people it’s the right call.

The downside?
It usually means a significant chunk of time away from doing what you actually want to be doing.

The second road is riskier. But it works just as well for a lot of people.

You train into the pain.

Not recklessly, but deliberately.

You find where the pain starts, you work up to it, maybe into it, and you monitor what happens.

Not just during the session, but in the 24 hours after.

That second window is the one that matters most.

If your pain doesn’t get any worse during training and settles back to baseline the next day, you’re generally good to keep going.

If that trend holds over time, the pain starts to go.

And that’s where we are really get proper results in terms of full return to performance pain free

But more importantly it sticks, and doesn’t come back.

25/03/2026

Everyone loves a trier eh.

Interesting couple of 1RM attempts this week.

Squat Monday, Deadlift Wednesday.

Some go for you, some go against.

Tbh I’ll take that deadlift PB having not done any in ages due to some back pain and appendix surgery 10 weeks ago.

We don’t need to talk about the squat 👀

Happy with training lately.

CrossFit Open performance was huge compared with last year.

We keep moving.