How to prevent Sports Injuries

Sources_

1. Top 10 Ways to Avoid a Sports Injury
2. Five ways to avoid sports injuries

Most of the people around the world are conscious about their health. Exercise and diet is like a daily routine for quite a lot of them. With the exercises: aerobic and anaerobic or indoor/outdoor or personal single personal exercises or team works/exercises many patients are presenting with sports related injuries. At least a quarter of them could avoid the injuries and sufferings if they know the preventive measures.

You must make sure that you are fit to do the particular type of activities by checking with your family doctor or if possible sports physician/surgeon or orthopaedic surgeon.

You should wear the particular sport attire. Make sure that they are from the reputable company. Branded ones are expensive but beware of imitations. Wear proper protective gear. Helmets are essential for biking, skiing snowboarding, and rollerblading; as well as for team sports such as football, hockey and baseball. Protective eyewear and mouth guards especially in boxing are equally important to prevent injuries. In addition, make sure your equipment is correct for your sport. Running shoes are great for marathons, but don’t offer enough support for basketball, soccer or tennis. Needless to say, all equipment must be well fitting and in good condition. It is particularly important to check children’s’ equipment before the start of each season since their sizes can change so rapidly.

If you are jogging and particularly if you have joint injury or joint pains, try to choose the type of the ground of your jogging track. Avoid hard surfaces like cement or tar, choose the softer ground or grass field or padded tarmac.   Make sure the tarmac or your playing field is in good shape and free of debris, well lighted and ventilated if possible air conditioned. So, it is clear that indoor stadiums or sports facilities should be the preferred choice.

Choose the safe place as if you are alone in some of the gardens or tracks, you could be mugged. Swimming pools without the life savers on duty may be sometimes dangerous.

Slow and steady is a good policy. Increase the physical load or speed or duration gradually. Never rush or try to show off or greedy or compete with others in the early stage of your activity. Know your limit. Don’t ever try to push your limit. You should understand that you are the best person to know and understand your limits. When you are out of breath, palpitate (consciousness of rapid heartbeats) or too tired or want to faint, slow down the pace and activity. But don’t ever try to lie down on the field or tarmac immediately because there is a danger of all your blood in your lower part of the body rushing back immediately into your heart. Build up your stamina gradually. Don’t try to do too much too soon. Slowly increase the time and intensity of your work out routines. If running, don’t increase your mileage or overall time by more than 10 percent per week. In weight training, avoid increasing the resistance or repetitions too drastically too quickly. Overuse injuries occur when you increase your exercise intensity more quickly than your body can adapt to the change.

You need to do warming up and warming down before and after each physical activity. You need to stretch your muscles and joints before every sport. Warm up and stretch before you start. A good warm up should last 15 – 20 minutes. Start with an easy cardiovascular workout to raise your body temperature and heart rate, and finish with slow easy stretching. Stretch slowly and don’t bounce. Stretching lengthens muscles while it increases blood flow and muscle temperature. When you’re finished, your muscles are ready to perform and are less likely to be injured.

If possible hire a professional instructor for your physical activity. If not work out together or play together with the experience person and make sure that you discuss with him about do and don’ts about the particular sports activity you wish to start. And you should read in advance about the facts or recommended methods or theories of that sport.  Training with a coach or sports trainer to learn and maintain good form can prevent bad habits and prevent chronic injuries in the future. Sprained ligaments and strained muscles often result from poor technique. Good body mechanics will help to prevent a lower back injury while swinging a golf club, hockey stick, or baseball bat. Good form increases efficiency and prevents overuse injury.

Drink enough water or in other words, hydrate. Enough water or fluid intake is important for athletes and all sportsmen/sportswomen before, during and after exercise.

Don’t overdo it. Don’t train hard every day; avoid overuse injuries by alternating hard and easy days as well as hard and easy weeks. Understand your body and watch for signs of fatigue. When you’re feeling down, cut-short your section.

You should learn about the “Cross training”. If you are a body builder: training in Gym, try jogging or swimming as a cross training exercise. If you are badminton, tennis, squash player try gym, jogging, treadmill and swimming. Varying exercise routines and styles prevents boredom, burn out, and overuse injuries. You should not only concentrate on strength and skills but should increase your stamina with the cardiovascular exercises. Mixing routines and workouts allows for an increased number of muscles and positions to be used and again can prevent overuse injuries.

Don’t force to continue playing when you’re injured. Don’t try to “play through” the pain. Rest and let the injury heal before returning to sport. Continuing to play can only make it worse and may lead to chronic problems. Taking a few days off, may prevent the loss of an entire season or career. Finally, remember RICE: Rest, Ice-Compression, and Elevation, the best treatment for an acute injury. Don’t use heat: hot water bags or hot towels or dip in hot water. Heat will increase the swelling because it reactivate or increase the internal bleeding (haematoma) because of increased blood flow.

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Tags: Health, Injury, Muscle, Physical exercise, Sport, Sports injury, Warming up, Weight training