Baseball is America’s favorite pastime and can be an exhilarating sport to participate in. It is a very physically demanding sport that requires players to be in good shape. If you play this thrilling and physically demanding sport, you should do everything possible to protect against injuries. Here are four of our best tips for doing so effectively.

Stretch Before You Practice and Play

Baseball tends to be very demanding for one-side of your body and the same muscle areas over and over again. For those that are right-handed, the right side of the body is responsible for throwing, hitting, and catching the ball. For left-handers, the opposite holds true. For this reason, it’s important that you properly stretch those muscles so that they don’t get pulled when you’re practicing or playing a real game. Your stretching should be focused on your hamstrings, back, and shoulders as they get the most use when playing the game of baseball.

Set Limitations

There’s a reason why pitchers are interchanged during the playoff games. This is to assist in preventing overuse injuries. Your chiropractor should be able to help you to set decent limitations for your practice and game times. Setting limitations is a great practice to start because it will prevent you from overusing your muscles and getting injured, especially if your team relies on you as a key player.

Wear the Right Equipment

As with any sort of sport, baseball requires various pieces of equipment to keep you safe while playing. Depending on your position, you may require more safety equipment than others. For example, a catcher is at a very high risk of getting hit by a baseball. Therefore, they tend to wear several pieces of protective gear to keep their bodies safe from harm. Batters should be wearing helmets to protect themselves from stray balls.

Play on a Safe Field

It’s very important that you pay attention to your surroundings when playing baseball. You don’t want to play on a field where there is debris laying or various divots throughout the field. Rather, you should opt for playing on fields that are properly taken care of. There’s a reason that parks and professional arenas both take care of their fields. It’s to ensure the safety of the players who use it on a regular basis.

Baseball can be a very fun sport to play. However, getting injured can really throw a wrench in your plans. By practicing the four safety tips above, you can greatly reduce your risk of getting injured when playing baseball.