Sport Injuries
Sports injuries include fractures, dislocations, tears, contusions, concussions, sprains, strains, tendinitis, and bursitis. Most sports always have some risk of injury, but you can decrease your chances through proper training and knowing how to warm up correctly.
Common types of sports injuries
Many different injuries can occur while performing athletic activity. These are some of the most common that can keep you sidelined.
1
Sprain
Ligaments create stability across your joints, they are essentially cords that connect one bone to another. When a ligament is forcefully overstretched we call it a sprain; e.g. rolling your ankle. The biggest predictive indicator for a sprain is having a previous sprain - but you can decrease your chances with proprioceptive and stability exercises!
2
Shin splints
Shin splints are described as pain along the front of your lower leg. Typically they are overuse injuries that cause the muscle attachments to pull from the bone creating inflammation and increased tightness.
3
Knee injuries
Most knee injuries are caused from asymmetrical ground reaction forces within the knee joint. More often than not the source of pain actually has nothing to do with your knee, but rather your foot/ankle or hip.
4
Strain or “pulled muscle”
If you have a pulled or torn muscle, it will go into a protective mechanism that causes it to tighten. A common natural reaction is to stretch it, but when you stretch a torn muscle you actually tear the muscle fibers apart more which delays healing. There are many alternative ways to decrease muscle tightness without pulling the fibers apart (stretching)!
5
Concussions
Concussions can keep you out of your game for longer than you’d ever like and can greatly affect your daily life. Research indicates direct correlation between stronger neck muscles and decreased risk of concussion. Proper cervical mobility and technique (of whichever sport you may be playing) are significant factors as well.
