By Spine and Sports

Runner's Knee If you know how to prevent common sports injuries, there is no reason you should only hurt even a little. If you are a weekend athlete after a sedentary work week, you want to take every precaution to avoid injuring yourself. This is true whether you participate in softball, soccer, tennis, or golf.

Common Sports Injuries

Your body contains some unique abilities.

• Natural strength and resilience
• Natural capacity to heal properly

Don’t let your fear of injury – or recurrent injury – change up your gait. Improper performance certainly will lead to another injury. Learn to correctly apply pressure and stress to your body in order to prevent injury or speed up healing.

• Ankle Sprain

• Groin pull

• Hamstring strain

• Shin splints

• ACL tear

• Tennis elbow
• Patellofemoral syndrome – repetitive motion knee injury, also called Runners Knee

Preventing Common Sports Injuries

Every sports activity – especially daily workouts – must begin with a gentle warm-up to prevent injury. A warm-up will prevent most common sports injuries. A daily workout schedule preceded by a warm-up routine will help prevent weekend or sporadic sporting injuries.

Benefits of a warm-up routine:

Increases blood flow to muscles

Helps flexibility

Decreases chance of injury

Listen to Your Body

Be smart and recognize when your body is experiencing fatigue. Muscle fatigue eliminates your innate physical protective reactions and increases the risk of injury.

Below are some signs of a sports injury and treatment methods. If at-home treatment methods don’t help, it’s time to seek medical attention from a sports medicine doctor.

Signs of a Sports Injury

A joint moves abnormally or looks crooked

Inability to balance or bear weight on a limb without it giving away

Excessive swelling, tingling, numbness

Changes in skin color – bruising

Pain lasting more than a few days

P-R-I-C-E

• P = Protect your body from further injury with a splint, pad, or crutch

• R = Restrict activity by halting your sport until injury subsides

• I = Apply ice immediately to reduce inflammation – don’t use heat because it encourages swelling and inflammation

• C = Apply compress with an elastic bandage to reduce swelling

• E = Elevate the injured area above the heart to reduce swelling