Playing and training for sports is a never-ending cycle. For athletes, even the off-season is never really an off-season. Practice and preparation happen all-year-round. It’s all for the sake of improving athletic performance, but such over diligence has a hidden pitfall. The longer you’re at the gym or on the field, the higher your risks of suffering an injury.
Injuries are the number one enemy in the world of sports. It doesn’t discriminate between the veteran and the rookie, or between the strong and the weak. No matter how talented and valuable a player you may be, an injury will send you straight to the bench. You’ll be forced to stay on the sidelines until you’re healthy and fit enough to play again.
Now, this is where physiatry comes in. Although the term may sound unfamiliar, this branch of medicine has actually been around since the early 20th century. It refers to physical medicine and rehabilitation, which focuses on restoring physical ability and function through physical therapy.
Physiatry is more complex than common physical therapy, though. Physiatric facilities such as the Eastern Idaho Spine, Sports, and Rehab Center dive deep into the patient’s nutrition, metabolic process, and hormonal makeup to identify underlying causes of physical injury or impairment. From a physiatric perspective, there are no accidents in sports. Even if you get injured from a sudden collision or a bad fall, the injury must have resulted from poor habits that made your body weak enough to break.
If you want to develop good habits to prevent sports-related injuries, here are eight practices you should incorporate into your daily life:
Pre-conditioning Gets Half The Job Done
Every athlete knows the importance of body conditioning. It increases endurance, flexibility, and balance, which are all important to sports performance as they are for injury prevention. Conditioning exercises target the muscles, ligaments, and tendons, which are parts of the body that are most susceptible to injury.
A good conditioning regimen includes the basics, such as stretching before and after an activity, as well as wearing proper gear. The goal is to get the body in tip-top physical condition so it can protect itself from getting hurt. It also helps to get a pre-season physical exam to identify areas of concern and block potential injuries from developing.
Tune In To Alarm Signals
Your body is smart. It sends out alarm signals when it detects that something is off, even if you don’t know or feel it yet. Pay attention to how your body responds to physical activity. When your training regimen increases in frequency and intensity, notice how your body keeps up. If you find yourself constantly struggling, you might think that it’s normal as your body is still adjusting to the load. However, it could also be your body telling you to stop because it won’t be able to take more.
This is why it’s important to know the difference between discomfort and pain. Discomfort happens when your body experiences something unfamiliar. In most cases, it’s simply a natural reaction to adjustment and could even be a sign of growth.
Pain, on the other hand, is a clear indication that a part of your body is broken or damaged. In fact, it could point to a wide range of health concerns, not just physical injury. If you’re unsure how to distinguish between the two, you can always seek help from your trainer, conditioning coach, or healthcare provider.
Go By The Book
When you're in the heat of the game, it's easy to be overcome by adrenaline rush. While it’s good to ride out the wave, you should always be careful not to go overboard. It’s important to follow the rules and limitations of the game, especially in high-contact sports. Most sports injuries come from trauma or overexertion, which are both direct results of excessive physicality. Rules were made to ensure the safety and health of every participant, so you should adhere to them at all times.
This also holds true for training or practice. Many athletes have a tendency to overtrain in their determination to step up their game. This could backfire into what experts call ‘overuse injuries’ or strains caused by repetitive trauma. You’re prone to overuse injuries if you train too long or too fast without giving your body enough time to recover. When doing any physical activity, the right approach is to start light, then gradually work your way up.
Rotate Your Routine
Another effective way to prevent overuse injuries is to eliminate the repetitive element of your physical activity. You can try cross-training, which refers to a routine that includes a variety of exercises apart from what you’ve been used to. Take Michael Jordan, for instance. He's famously known for cross-training between basketball and baseball back in his heyday.
Cross-training allows you to train different muscle groups, so the strain isn’t lumped in just one area. Your overused muscles can then recuperate from the constant stress of the repetitive workout.
You don’t have to dip your feet into an entirely new sport to cross-train. Simply incorporating core exercises from a specific sport should be enough to mix up your routine. For example, if you’re a soccer player, your lower body bears most of the strain of your training. You can pick out exercises from a tennis or squash player’s routine since racket sports focus on strengthening the upper body. This way, you can undo muscle imbalance that could lead to injuries.
Prioritize Motor Coordination
All physical activity, especially sports, is deeply rooted in efficient musculoskeletal coordination. If the muscles involved in a movement aren’t well-coordinated, the body will suffer from muscle fatigue and tension. Worn out and stiff muscles negatively affect other aspects of sports performance, such as endurance, flexibility, and balance.
To prevent such domino effect, you should work on calibrating your motor coordination. Many people have the false notion that coordination is something you’re born with–either you have it or you don’t (think how people who can’t dance are said to have two left feet). The truth is, it’s a learnable and trainable skill. You can incorporate exercises into your training regimen that target your sense of balance and center of gravity, such as Yoga or Pilates.
Make Use Of The Recommended Safety Gear
While wearing the proper safety gear doesn’t guarantee zero injuries while doing sports, it can still reduce the chances of getting one. Depending on the type of sport you’re playing, you should observe the proper use of equipment before the start of the activity.
For example, you should protect certain areas of your body such as your neck, chest, elbow, shoulder, knee, and shin by wearing helmets, pads, eyewear, face guards, mouthpiece, and protective cups while the sport is going on.
Abide By The Rules And Regulations Of The Sport You’re Doing
In addition to making the sport more exciting, the rules and regulations are intended to keep everything and everyone safe. This is especially true if you’re doing a contact sport. Thus, if you want to minimize the risk of injury while doing sports, you should know how to abide by the rules of conduct. Also, be sure to respect the enforcement by referees, judges, and umpires.
Remember, these rules are designed to keep everything in order and keep athletes healthy. So, don’t hesitate to follow them throughout the activity.
Follow Some Healthy Habits
Reducing injury while doing sports can also be done by following some healthy habits. These can include:
Ensure you get good nutrition – Typically, having a good nutrition plan can go a long way in making sure you retrieve the lost nutrients after doing sports. This means that if you neglect your nutritional requirements, your body may be unable to recover, leading to injuries.
To ensure your body gets the nutrition it needs, consume regular, small amounts of meals to fuel your sport, pay attention to clean-eating by observing an unprocessed diet, and don’t neglect protein consumption since it’s important for muscle repair and growth.
Stay hydrated – Doing sports can easily dehydrate your body. To avoid dehydration and its underlying health effects, such as exhaustion, heatstroke, and many more, you should drink more fluids a few minutes before participating in any activity.
The more active you are, the more fluids you need to take back into your body. Also, be sure to keep extra bottles of water to keep yourself hydrated.
Rest – In most cases, athletes who perform consecutive days of training are susceptible to injuries. While more training can make your performance better, you still need an ample amount of rest to prevent injuries caused by overuse and fatigue. Also, proper rest allows you to be stronger and healthier.
Playing It Safe
No one is ever safe from injury. If you’ve been playing sports long enough, you’re bound to get hurt one way or another. It’s all part of the game. The best you can do is to reduce the risks by forming good habits and keeping your body within its physical limits.
