Injuries are part of the game whether you play sports for fitness or competition. The worst nightmare would be that you are sidelined for the rest of your life. There are a lot of factors that help in preventing you from injuries and wearing the right gear is one option to prevent yourself from being sidelined.
The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons research suggests that injury rates could be reduced by 25% if athletes took appropriate preventative action.
However, there are some preventive measures that can save you from injuries or at least prevent you from being sidelined for life. Let’s have a look at some of them.
Set Realistic Goals to Achieve a Higher Level
Athletes in order to achieve a higher level of skills and physical strength, spend more time exercising and practicing. It is good to some extent, but going beyond your limits might lead to strains and injuries.
For instance, if you wish to swim more laps or run a longer distance in a short time, make sure to set realistic goals. Moreover, you can gradually improve your performance if you set realistic goals, otherwise, you might face the consequences.
Use Proper Measures to Prevent Injuries
The ideal way to avoid sports injuries is to take proper measures. For instance, most of sports activity requires you to start with a warm-up of stretches and light exercises. Your body gets warmer and boosts your blood flow throughout the body.
In recent studies, the significance of warming up is being questioned prior to involving in some physical activity. Everyone from professional athletes to Olympians their bodies before they began their sport. It is hard to envision a football player kicking a ball fresh out of bed in the morning. It is good to take some advice from professionals and prepare your body with jogging, jumping, or stretching.
Wear the Right Gear
Wearing appropriate equipment or gear helps you to avoid injuries or at least prevent you from being hurt badly. Helmets, mouth guards, footwear, and elbow pad are a few important gears commonly used in sports. Moreover, shoes that properly fit on your feet and offer adequate support can prevent your foot from cramps, sprained ankles, shin splints, etc.
Avoid Overuse Injuries
Sports injuries are also caused by performing the same actions repeatedly. Sports injury prevention focuses on decreasing these monotonous movements, when possible. Although repetition enhances your skills and muscle memory, it also results in strain on muscles, ligaments, and joints.
Make sure to engage in cross-training sessions. Cross-training exercises allow you to involve in different exercises where some of your muscles are active while others are at rest. In short, it dispenses the burden of motion over the whole body instead of just one part.
For instance, if you are a tennis player, giving your upper body a short break with running is an ideal way to curtail the possibility of injury.
Allow your body time to heal
In order to make sure a sports injury does not last long, you should give ample time to heal the injury. After recovering from injury, activities should be resumed gradually. If the pain is felt again, it means that the injury is not healed and you need to take rest.
The same rules for circumventing a sports injury, such as warming up before activity, eluding overexertion, and obtaining proper sports gear can support avoiding chronic sports injuries.
Take Some Rest Each Week
If you are an athlete, it is important to take some rest each week. Make sure you should not participate in sports every day of the week. Moreover, it is not recommended to train hard each day. Muscles need some rest to recover.
