Sports Injuries
Playing sport and doing regular exercise provides health benefits but can sometimes lead to injuries. 'Sports injuries' are injuries that happen when exercising or playing sports. Some injuries are caused by accidents, others can be attributed to poor training practices or the wrong equipment. The most common sports injuries are strains and sprains, which can occur in almost any type of physical activity followed closely by knee injuries and swollen muscles. with possible causes:
- Accident, trip, fall or contact
- Not warming up fully
- Poor technique
- Overuse
Description Of Sports Injuries
Usually, a sport injury consists of a soft tissue injury (STI's) and presents with the following types of symptoms: Pain, tenderness on palpation, swelling, bruising, reduced range of movement.
It is important to allow your body to start the recovery process and this normally means a short period of rest, however, this may not always be convenient and a Physiotherapist can use certain treatments to speed up the rate of healing and protect the area. It is important that you do not exercise through any pain unless advised to do so by your Physiotherapist as this may make to problem worse and lead to you being out of your sport for a longer period in the long run.
Sports Injury Prevention
Prevention is better than cure and it is important to prepare your body for the type of exercise you are about to undertake. Generally, it is starting at a low level and gradually building up over time, thinking about what type of movements and skills will be needed and practice these in your training. Training exercises should include work on flexibility, strength, endurance, core stability and cardiovascular but there will be specific ones to each sport and position in the team.
