The Sports Archives

If you play sports, you may have injuries pop up here and there. When you get an injury, depending on how bad it is, you may be out of the game for weeks, sometimes even months and that’s never fun. Here, we are going to give you some information on sports injuries and give you some tips on preventing them from ever happening.

Factors for Sports Injuries

Let’s first start by looking at some causative factors for these injuries.

Age
Gender
Injury History
Body Size
Muscle Strength
Skill Level
Fitness Level
Environment
Equipment
Psychological State
Conditioning Errors
Type of Activity

Exactly what is injury prevention?

By changing the individual behavior, the equipment, environment, injuries can be preventable. Here are some methods you can start using in order to prevent injuries from happening.

Warm Up

Before you start your game, you need to do some warm ups. So many people skip the warm ups, thinking they’re not needed, skipping the warm up isn’t a good idea. The reason behind warm ups is to raise the body temperature. When you warm up before actually playing, you will be increasing blood flow to muscles, enhancing the muscles mechanical efficiency, enhancing your cardiovascular capability and enhancing the mental concentration for your sport. You see, there is a reason your instructor always told you to do those warm up exercises before you go out and play.

Don’t Forget to Stretch

Believe it or not, stretching is important. Before you start playing, stretch! Here’s the basics to stretching – warm up prior to stretching, stretch slowly and gently, stretch before and after sports, stretch to the point of tension but do not cause pain.

Walk/Run on the Appropriate Surface

To prevent sports injury from occurring, you must walk/run on the appropriate surface. When you are walking and running, your body is subjected to high-repetitive forces, which will increase the susceptibility to injury. Softer surfaces actually reduce the chances of sports injuries.

Stay Hydrated

When you’re playing sports, you must drink plenty of water. By drinking water, you will have more energy and it will help stabilize your core body temperature. Not to mention the fact that water will help keep your muscles hydrated and prevent them from cramping.

Protective Gear

There is a reason protective gear exists – it is there to prevent injuries. Goggles, mouth guards, padding and shin guards are recommended for the relevant sporting activities. Before you get on your bike, the field or the court, make sure your gear is on.

If it Hurts, Stop

Most of all, if it hurts, stop – do not push yourself. As soon as you start to feel pain, stop playing. So many athletes ignore this fact and end up having to take a break from sports.

There are ways you can prevent sports injuries, you can find injury prevention tips specific to your sport by reading a sports therapy blog. Sometimes, accidents do happen and when it does, you should go to a doctor right away.

Featured images:

License: Creative Commons image source

This post was supplied by Mark Stubbles, Mark once suffered horribly back spasms as a result of an injury he sustained in the gym.