When an athlete suffers a career-ending injury, the majority of people understand it’s sad but don’t think much about it. However, what you may not realize is that, even if you aren’t a professional athlete but as long as you play sports whether for recreation or exercise you can also be at risk of sports injuries. So, no matter which side of the retrospect you’re on, it’s essential to understand how injuries occur and what you can do to prevent and treat it.
Sports Injuries
Exercises, joining sports, and doing simple activities like walking, biking, or jogging every day is always recommended to people to maintain good health. However, while such things bring benefits to your health, it is not without some risks. Here are some instances where sports cause injuries:
Overuse
Sports that involve overuse or repetitive movements tend to result injuries. This is why if you noticed tennis elbow, golf elbow, and runner’s knee are named after a sport. These injuries are named such because the sport utilizes that particular part of the body repeatedly.
Stops And Twists
People who play sports like basketball, gymnastics, and soccer often encounter knee and ankle injuries because of the quick stopping and twisting motions involved in sports. Athletes of these sports are often running at full speed and make abrupt stops and twist which tears muscles and cushioning cartilage.
Falls
Whether it’s training or during a proper game, falls are unavoidable especially with high impact sports. When this happens, it’s usually the wrist which gets injured because people tend to use their hands to break their fall.
Improper Equipment
Wearing shoes that do not provide enough support, lifting weight that is too heavy for you and ill-fitting helmet can all lead to injuries. This is why it’s important that you invest in sports gears that suit your body so that it can help you perform better instead of cause you injury.
New Or Increased Activity
Whether you’re trying a new sport or increasing your level of current activity, know that you can’t do that all of a sudden. You have to start gradually and not go from 0 to 10. Otherwise you’ll suffer plantar fasciitis, lower back pain, or cramps.
Fatigue
This is why experts advise against working out every day. Your body needs to rest in between activity to recover from the intense workout and avoid muscle pulls.
Poor Warmup
There’s a reason why people are always told to warm up properly prior to exercising. You have to ease into the workout by stretching to deliver blood and oxygen to your muscles. This doesn’t just prevent injuries but it also help you muscles work more efficiently.
Impact
Hard impacts are another culprit behind injuries such as shin splints and plantar fasciitis. Hard surfaces cause a more jarring impact on an athlete's feet, legs, hips and back.
Unilateral Movements
When you do an activity that only exerts one side of your body, like golf and tennis, it results to weaker muscles on less active side of your body. This can lead to pain for the active side and dull ache for the not so active side.
Technique Or Posture
This is why it’s important to hire an instructor or trainer when starting a sport because they can help check you form and if you’re doing the activity right. If you don’t have the right posture you risk suffering from pain, spasm, and pulls. Not to mention you won’t be getting the most out of the workout because you’re doing it wrong.
These factors are often the reason behind common sports injuries like ankle sprain, groin pull, hamstring strain, shin splints, knee injury (ACL tear and Patellofemoral syndrome), and tennis elbow. These injuries can either affect future performances or, worst; prevent you from ever playing again. Having said that, it’s so important to not ignore the symptoms and seek appropriate treatment right away.
Chiropractic Treatment
This is the reason why most sports team employs a chiropractor, because chiropractors can provide care and treatment that can help athletes or any active individual perform at their best. Here’s how chiropractic care is beneficial for anyone with sports injuries.
· The chiropractor can assess diagnose, and manage sports-related injuries
· A thorough physical examination, along with a person’s medical history, will help a chiropractor know the cause of the pain and dysfunction and will then devise a personalized treatment plan for the patient.
· Possible treatments are joint manipulation and mobilization, soft tissue therapy, adjunct modalities, rehabilitation, individualized exercise, as well as lifestyle and nutritional advice.
· A regular chiropractic session can also help prevent injuries by correcting subluxation and strengthening the musculoskeletal system. Aside from that, it can also prevent the development of chronic problems or permanent damage.
· It can be used for body maintenance too. Even if athletes luckily avoid getting injured, the stress their body get simply by playing the game is no joke. Most teams, especially in professional football, have a chiropractor on staff to make sure that their body is well maintained.
· It can also improve mobility. Flexibility is important for any athlete, an ability that is not always easy to achieve. But with chiropractic’s Osteopathic manipulative treatment, or OMT, which are the main forms of chiropractic therapy that promotes flexibility, athletes can move freely without pain.
· Seeking chiropractic care in case of injuries help relieves pain. The great thing about chiropractic is that it can provide instant pain relief even on the first session of spinal adjustment.
· Along with treatment, chiropractic care also helps enhance performance in general. Since chiropractic helps prevent injury, maintain an athlete’s body condition, relieves soreness and stiffness, build strength, and treat injuries without surgery, it’s not so surprising that athletes’ performance become better in general because of this treatment.