Sports Injuries: What Every Athlete Should Know
Whether you engage in sports for fun, or you’re working to become a professional athlete, there are very many ways that sports medicine can play a vital role to help in prevention, treatment, and recovery from any possible sports injuries. Some of the most common body parts that sustain injuries during sports are your head, back, neck, thighs, hips, wrists, elbows, ankles, knees, fingers, and feet. Actually, there are many common injuries that your body can endure over the years while playing sports, but most sports injuries are completely avoidable.
You may have a great diet that includes all or most of the prescribed supplements for bone, joint and muscle rehabilitation. You might even do all the recommended workouts that you’ve read on that are excellent for improving strength and building that strong athletic frame that you desire, but doing all these things can’t ensure that you won’t sustain physical stress-related or trauma-induced injury at sometimes. Whether it’s just a minor cut or requires multiple surgeries to treat in order to regain correct form and athletic capacity, a sports medicine professional will be able to diagnose, treat and educate you on the causes and best practices for preventing sports injuries.
What Causes Injuries in Sports?
To effectively prevent and deal with sports-related injuries, we first need to determine the root causes of injuries in sports. There are many factors that influence the frequency and severity of sports injuries. We’ll talk about some of the major ones that affect most athletes.
Muscle Overuse
In most cases, repeated use, also known as overuse is the factor responsible for sports injuries. Inadequate preparations for sports activities are also frequent causes of many of the injuries that require the intervention of sports medicine. For instance, impromptu stops, twists, and turns after active running are common while playing basketball, tennis or football, and can place excessive amounts of stress on the tendons, ligaments, and muscles which could cause tears and sprains. Moreover, collisions and falls on hard arenas or from heights can cause broken bones or fractures.
Inadequate exercise
Another cause of sports injuries is disregarding essential warm-up drills and stretches. When an athlete does not warm up properly before a game, it prevents adequate blood and oxygen circulation needed to prepare our muscles for peak sports performance and injuries could also occur as a result.
Incorrect or Non-usage of Safety Gear
Many athletes refuse to use safety devices and equipment that can help them prevent them from getting injured. They often complain that the safety equipment reduces their sports performance in some way. It is the responsibility of the sports management team to provide safety gear for players that is both convenient and efficient to use.
Broken down Sportswear and Equipment
Many athletes commit the error of continuing to use athletic facilities, equipment, and footwear far beyond their beneficial life. For example, a common issue with track and field athletes is to use athletic shoes until they are worn out. They probably figure that when shoes are worn in they are better and more comfortable, but the fact is that worn in footwear no longer provides adequate ankle support for the foot to shield the ligaments and joints.
Sports injuries occur all the time, but they can be avoided if you take the necessary precautions. Every athlete must be aware of the most common injuries and how to avoid them. Safety in sports is an issue that should never be trivialized because only uninjured athletes can participate. Often we see that athletes will go the extra mile to secure points for the team, even to the detriment of their physical health. This should not be the case. Let’s see some of the most common injuries in sports.
Common Sports Injuries
The most frequent type of injuries associated with sports are muscle pulls, neck pain and strain, shoulder injury, lower back strain and injury, the Tennis elbow, shin splints, runners knee, twisted or sprained ankle, Achilles heel injuries (Achilles Tendonitis) and foot arch strain and pains.
The common factor determining the occurrence of all these injuries is an overstraining of the muscles through a non-contact exercise. This implies that most athletes aren’t sustaining the larger part of sports injuries from Soccer or other contact-based sports as sports that don’t require the athletes to frequently contact themselves. Also, many sports injuries occur due to improper or insufficient targeted workouts or overusing one muscle group during participation in sports.
Popular Misconceptions
Many athletes think that getting injured is a ‘normal’ part of being an athlete – the price you have to pay for participating in sports whether as a rookie or professional, but this is simply not true. Getting injured or sustaining permanent injury to any of your body parts isn’t a price you have to pay for being an athlete. All you need is to do things right, and you can take parts in sports safely.
Many athletes who just recovered from an injury say that they felt the injury could have been avoided if only they had taken the proper precautions like warming up adequately and playing within their range of abilities instead of over pushing themselves. Some athletes even say they failed to acknowledge the warning signs that they were pushing themselves too far because they didn’t want to disappoint others.
Once an injury occurs it could likely become a recurring problem if the injured muscles are not treated adequately and allowed to heal properly before the athlete resumes normal activity. Ensuring adequate healing from sports injuries is the responsibility of sports medicine professionals called Physiotherapists. The most important root cause of recurring sports injuries is overexertion before the healing process has been completed.
Last Words
As we have seen from the discussion so far, sports injuries are common, yet largely preventable. With a solid knowledge of sports safety, athletes will be able to identify, correct or eliminate most of the controllable factors causing sports injury. The other factors that can’t quite be controlled can be avoided or managed to keep every athlete safe. Sports safety should be at the core of sports participation and also in the consciousness of the athletes themselves.
