Dealing With Sports Injuries

As many of you know, I recently suffered a sprained ankle and a pretty good one at that. A number of factors were involved, but injuries are bound to happen at some point to you as well just as it did for me. I like playing sports, whether that is with my kids or with “the guys”. Working out on a regular basis helps me to do that and at a pace where I can keep up with both my kids and the younger crowd alike.

Sports injuries are fairly common because most sports involve rigorous physical activities and owing to strenuous exertion of body parts, injury is often unavoidable. Working out at home with fitness programs like P90X or Focus T25 can and should be included in this conversation. The different sports injuries can be categorized under various subheads depending upon the cause of problem and the extent of injury.

Traumatic Injuries

These are injuries that are very severe and often involve fracture in bone or injury to critical areas like spinal cord and brain. Such Injuries can occur because of some strong collision from an object or even the ground. Concussion is one of the most critical forms of sports injury as it can also lead to death in some cases.

Stress Injuries

These are injuries that arise because of excessive indulgence in games or sports. Runner’s knee and tennis elbow are two common injuries that can arise because of stress. Even hamstring injury can be caused because of excessive burning of body parts while participating in different sporting activities.

Treating The Different Sports Injuries

There are a lot of different treatments for sports injuries that you can choose.

Drugs

Some people tend to opt for drugs as they can provide an immediate relief. However, merely using drugs is not likely to be a permanent solution as the pain and the problem are likely to recur.

Surgery

In some cases of extreme injury, you may have to resort to surgical operations. Even in some cases of sprained ankle treatment, people have resorted to surgery because surgery offers a permanent way of getting rid of the ailments and injuries. Luckily, surgery wasn’t necessary for my ankle.

Physiotherapist

Although, people resort to the above two methods, yet it is physiotherapy that is one of the finest ways of handling sports injuries. Physiotherapy is the branch of medicine that helps in treating the impairments in the different body parts. There are no side effects to this form of treatment because it makes apt use of exercises that helps in remedying the strain that is caused on the different muscles. PT (Physical Therapy) is generally the most preferred method of treatment with sports injuries.

R.I.C.E.

The RICE method is a great form of sprained ankle treatment and what I used. Well…the “Rest” part of this acronym may not have been used too much, but the others were applied.

R = Rest

I = Ice – Reduces swelling

C = Compression – wrap with ACE bandage or athletic tape

E = Elevation – also reduces swelling

As an athlete, it is important to resort to the right method of treatment because failure to take care of your injuries can jeopardize your career. So, the moment you experience any discomfort, you should try to seek the right form of treatment and get healthy yet again so that you can resume your career as an athlete.

Injury Prevention

Get Stronger

One of the best way to prevent injury is to simply get stronger and improve your weaknesses. The stronger your body is, the less likely you are to sustain an injury. To find the best training programs that can help you stay fit, check out the awesome fitness programs that I have used myself with proven results -> At Home Fitness Programs.

Know your limits

Sometimes you have to know your own limits and check your ego at the door. There is a huge difference between pushing your body to the limit and going over that limit with little regard for your own safety. Don’t put yourself in a situation where injury will be more likely to occur because you are trying to keep up with someone else.

Summary

While injuries do occur and they are no fun to deal with, if managed properly, there should be minimal downtime as a result. Depending on the injury itself, you may still be able to continue being active. For example, if the lower half is hurting, work the upper half and vise versa. For me, the ankle injury was more of an annoyance for the first few days and is pretty much 100% back to normal.

Make sure you choose safety and caution over ego in determining your ability to resume working out. If you return too early, you may re-injure or worse injure yourself even further and risk additional damage that would require more extensive treatment.

Need a Coach?

If you need to find someone that will hold you accountable, answer your questions, help you, and PUSH YOU for the entire duration of your workout! Luckily for you, that’s what me and my team are here for. If you don’t have a coach yet and want one, I’d love to be your coach and help you through a fitness program. I am available to help you reach your goals!

Join The Team Now!