Playing sports is good for your overall health. However, you may start suffering from sports injuries. A sports injury, as the word suggests, is an injury (injury, damage or complaint) that you sustain while playing sport. This injury can be divided into three different types; muscle injury, tendon injury or a bone injury. But how do sports injuries actually occur? In this article, you will read about the causes of injuries and what you can do to prevent them.
What kind of sports injuries are there?
There are different types of sports injuries. A sports injury may occur suddenly (acute sports injury) or an injury may persist for a longer period of time (chronic injury).
Acute sports injury
Examples of an acute sports injury include a bruised ankle, a twisted knee or a sprain in your wrist. These often occur during rapid movement and/or incorrect movement. With an acute sports injury, you will immediately experience a painful sensation and will not be able to continue with your planned training.
Chronic sports injury
If a bone or tendon has been overused for a long time, it can cause chronic injuries. If a tendon or bone is not given enough time to recover, cracks may appear. This indicates that the body part, due to overuse, has reached its limit.
How do you suffer a sports injury?
Suffering sports injuries can have several causes. These include poor training preparation, incorrect posture during training, incorrect footwear, insufficient fitness, insufficient rest, ect. In addition, it can also be caused by circumstances such as untrained fanatical training, certain 'fall risks' in sports (hurdling, gymnastics, skateboarding).
In an acute sports injury, the cause is often a fall, blow or collision or, as mentioned earlier, making a quick wrong movement. A chronic sports injury is often caused by a repetitive wrong movement, which overloads the muscles and tendons. Sports injuries often occur to the wrists, hands, knees and ankles.
It is also the case that the risk is simply higher in certain sports, such as:
- Football
- Tennis
- Volleyball
- Martial arts
- Hockey
How do you prevent sports injuries?
- Good warm-up
Make sure you start every workout with a proper warm-up. This is often omitted, but is very important to prevent sports injuries. A good warm-up gets your heart pumping harder by increasing your heart rate. This ensures that your blood flows through your blood vessels faster, thus getting oxygen to your muscles. As a result, your muscles function better and your muscles are less vulnerable to sports injuries.
- Good cool-down
In addition, a good cool-down is also very important to prevent sports injuries. During cool-down, your body is given time to rest and eliminate waste products. This prevents muscle pain and stiffness.
- Building up sports evenly
Often, athletes start training too intensely than their bodies can handle. So make sure you build up your training process properly. This will allow your body to get used to it and from there you can start building it up. This way, you will prevent sports injuries.
- Provide good sports equipment
Good quality sports equipment already helps a lot in preventing sports injuries. Think of good running shoes for running, with the right cushioning and sole, good football boots for playing football, good boxing gloves for boxing, e.g. made of leather, or good knee pads for volleyball.
Still suffering from sports injuries?
Of course, you cannot always avoid a sports injury. So should it be the case that you have suffered a sports injury you can always make an appointment with one of our sports physiotherapists, by calling 085-5000333, emailing info@friskfysio.nl or via our contact page. In addition, we can also guide you on how to exercise responsibly, so that you immediately have the right technique and form while exercising.
