A sports injury is that damage that occurs in the body after the practice of some discipline or during the execution of physical exercise. These injuries can be produced accidentally or due to poor technique during the execution of workouts.
Injuries can impair your physical performance, requiring immediate medical attention and speedy recovery. These ailments can become very painful and totally condition your physical activity in the sport you are training.
Types of sports injury
Medicine has categorized the following types of sports injury as common:
- Sprains: it is the unnatural tearing, bending or stretching of the ligaments. They are usually painful and cause inflammation. It requires immediate medical treatment.
- Swollen muscles: caused because the muscle is exposed to sports overexertion causing numbness and muscle burning. They should be treated with arnica and anti-inflammatory creams that can be ingested orally such as ibuprofen.
- Torn muscles and tendons: product of the excessive stretching of a tendon or muscle causing its rupture. A torn muscle causes intense pain and leads to immediate medical treatment.
- Dislocations: displacement of a joint from its original position to another. It requires treatment by a physical therapist. They usually cause swelling and inflammation with redness.
- Knee Injuries – Gradual wear and tear on the knee cartilage leading to swelling and pain. This type of trauma usually manifests itself in dancers.
Tricks to avoid a sports injury
Playing sports is a lot of fun, you just have to try to have a correct technique. Next, a list of tricks and recommendations will be given to avoid future sports injuries in your workouts.
Prewarming
You must prepare your musculoskeletal and cardiovascular system with a body warm-up where you incorporate head movements, correctly positioning your back, circular shoulder movements, torso rotation, movements in the hips drawing circles with it, back and forth and laterally and leg stretching.
Have a protective equipment from a sports injury
Protective equipment is any accessory that helps you avoid trauma to your body and will depend on the type of discipline you practice. For example, if you are a dancer, some knee pads and special shoes.
If you are a hockey player or you ride a bicycle, the helmet, the wrist and elbow pads are the main elements for the protection of your body , so it is essential to use them to avoid a sports injury.
Stop playing sports when presenting an injury
If playing sports is your hobby, it may seem inviting to continue training after being injured. Playing sports after suffering an injury or after a recovery is not a good idea. It can aggravate your injury, forcing you to stay at home for a long time, resting and can even cause new injuries .
Some pathologies such as headache and cardiac arrhythmia should not be neglected and it is totally forbidden to carry out sports sessions if you suffer from any of these. If you have dislocations or muscle pain, it is important not to practice, as you could worsen your injury.
A good diet and hydration prevents a sports injury
Consuming foods rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals after a session of exercises, workouts and sports, replenishes your energy and provides protein to your body to protect muscles and tissues from any muscle damage. In addition, you must replace the fluid lost during physical activity through the consumption of water.
Eating food to regain muscle fibers after training is a practice that will help you stay healthy and stable. Protein-rich foods such as eggs, red meat and vegetable proteins are recommended to recover the muscles after the session. These foods have proteins such as carnitine, creatine, and glutamine that are ideal for muscle growth and recovery.
Post-sport cooldown
Once you finish your sports day, it is essential that you do a milder stretch such as walking, stretching the head, trunk and legs for ten more minutes to reduce muscle pain the next day and, also, maintain your flexibility, which is useful. to reduce the risk of injury.
It is essential to slow down the exercise gradually after a high intensity session. If we pause the exercise ipso facto , we can cause muscle injuries such as cramps. For example, if we are doing a high intensity spinning session on a bicycle, we must lower the revolutions little by little before stopping completely.
Muscle stretching immediately upon waking
Stretching when you wake up is essential to loosen your lower back muscles. For this, we recommend hanging ourselves from a side bar high enough to be with our feet suspended. You must hold the bar with force and stretch your back as much as we can.
In the case of not having a bar we can stretch from the ground, for that we will place ourselves in a plank position and stretch our back as far as our body can. It is crucial when waking up to gently stretch the arm and leg joints. As people get older they need to do these stretches more often.
Sleep the corresponding hours
If we go to the gym or the sports field without having enough rest, we may experience exhaustion and other conditions. Not getting enough sleep will make the body not fully alert. In addition, the exercise will be conditioned and the performance will be lower. In these types of sports sessions, it is very likely that we will not be able to offer the best performance if we do not sleep between six and eight hours a day, which also increases the risk of injury .
Don’t do improper exercises
There are many gurus who recommend exercises through Internet platforms, but they do not have a solid scientific basis that shows that such exercise is beneficial for our body. Performing unnatural exercises can lead to a sports injury.
Gym exercises such as pulls behind the neck or nape, as well as dips with the bar behind the neck, can cause injuries such as rotator cuffs and other parts of the shoulder.
Nor should you run on stony and rocky slopes, as you can injure the soles of your feet. In addition, doing these types of workouts will overload your knees with an effort that is outside their resistance range. It is recommended only make running on flat terrain and slopes.
Get advice only with professionals
When you go to the gym or a sports center, you should ask the coaches and advisers present in the venue for help, as they will know what exercises to recommend depending on your sports goal. This support staff will also recommend certain workouts depending on your physical shape, age, height, they will take into account if you suffer from pre-existing diseases such as blood pressure or muscle injuries.
In conclusion, improving your physical condition without injury does not require impressing others in the process, just following the proper guidelines and being a disciplined athlete.
References
- WALKER, Brad. ANATOMY OF SPORTS INJURIES, LA (Color). Editorial Paidotribo, 2009.
- ADAME CARMONA, Sergio. Sports related to lumbar injuries. 2020.
- ÁLAVA PESANTEZ, Anthony Xavier. Physical conditioning for the recovery of ankle injuries in skateboarding athletes. 2020. Bachelor’s Thesis. University of Guayaquil, Faculty of Physical Education, Sports and Recreation.
- COMPAÑÍAS DE SALUD, Y. Sport & Salud.
