Sports are a great way to stay healthy…but also an easy way to get hurt. More and more, athletes are injuring themselves out of competition before they finish high school. The solution, of course, is not avoiding the playing field, court, or track. Read on to educate yourself on the most common sports injuries and how you can best prevent them, and treat them.
By Brian Beise
Full PDF here.
Good and Bad Pain: Know the Difference
Not all injuries result from accidental collisions or twists of the ankle. Many occur as the result of poor training, failure to warm up or stretch, or being out of shape. Often, preventing sports injuries is simply a matter of:
Additionally, knowing the difference between the pain of good exercise and the pain of pending damage can go a long way in injury prevention.
Acute or Chronic? There are two basic types of sports injuries.
Acute injuries occur suddenly, usually as the result of a hard stop, twist, fall, or collision. They occur most often in sports like basketball, football, baseball, wrestling, soccer, and other contact sports. Examples include wrist fractures, torn knee ligaments, ankle sprains, and shoulder dislocations.
Chronic injuries (also known as stress injuries) result from overuse, increasing your physical activity without enough preparation, using poor form or posture, having improper equipment, or pushing the body too hard over time. Chronic injuries occur most often in sports like running, tennis, and swimming. Examples include tennis elbow, runner’s knee, Achilles tendinitis and shin splints.
It’s important to note that without proper treatment, acute injuries can become chronic, and chronic injuries can flare up, suddenly becoming acute.
