Injury Prevention
Sports Injuries are one of the main reasons people quit the sports they love. This is sad because a large amount of these sports injuries are preventable. Accidents happen in sports however and that is the sad truth. Some ways that you can prevent injuries are prehab, stretching, hydration, and avoiding overuse.
Stretching
Stretching is one of the most overlooked and important aspects of being an athlete. Stretching helps keep muscles flexible, strong, and healthy. It keeps our range of motion in joints. Without stretching muscles will tighten up and become taught. Then when you need that muscle to preform an activity you are at risk of joint injury, muscle strains and muscle damage. A strong muscle is a flexible one. having flexible muscles keeps them long, lean, and healthy. If you r muscles are tight and you try to preform an exercise that requires an inflexible muscle it puts a lot more strain on that muscle and joints in the area. they are injured more if suddenly stretched so to be prepared for this a regular stretching schedule is necessary. Some important stretches are shown bellowto get you started.
The first retch is an Achilles stretch and is especially important to stretch before running. The second image is a hamstring stretch and is important for virtually all exercises. You do not need to have a resistance band to stretch your hamstrings, anything will work. The third image is a quad stretch and is also a very important stretch for runners and various other athlete. Remember stretching is very important and doesn't require a lot of effort so doing it shoudl not be a big hassle.
Hydration
It cannot be stressed enough that hydration is essential for everyone especially athletes. According to trainers at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) being hydrated accounts for 20 percent of your workout. This means that if you are not hydrated you are 20 percent less efficient in your exercises and results will not be seen. It is important to drink water before, during and after exercise. Water is very important because it regulates your body temperature, lubricates joints and also helps transport nutrients. A couple things that may happen if you are dehydrated are fatigue, muscle cramps, dizziness and some other more serious effects. An easy way to tell if you are dehydrated is to check our urine. If it is clear or light yellow you are hydrated but if it is darker yellow you are dehydrated. Sports drinks such as Gatorade are great for keeping energized during exercise. Just remember you are consuming sugar as well with those energy drinks.
Avoiding Overuse
A major key in injury prevention is avoiding overuse. This means not overdoing something repetitively and differentiating in your exercises. Overdoing one particular exercise can cause a number of problems. For example if you were to do a lot of exercises that strengthens your bicep and not do any exercises to strengthen your triceps then you are at a higher risk of injury. So it is necessary to have a wide variety in exercises for each part of the body. Over use may sound easy to solve but for a lot of people it isn't. If you are overusing a muscle you will need to stop doing whatever hurts it and rest. If you do not you could potentially injure yourself further. An example of an injury that can be caused by repetitive overuse is Tendinitis which will be covered more thoroughly in later pages of this website. If you notice that a particular part of your body hurts and doesn't go away, it may be an indicator that you are overusing that area of your body. Remember however nobody knows your body better than you do, so you know your own limits.
Prehab
Prehab is a way for you to prevent injuries by protecting the most injury prone areas of the body. Prehab exercises are very similar to rehabilitation exercises besides the fact that rehab is done after injuries, not before. Some good areas of the body to do prehab exercises on are shoulders, ankles, wrists, and elbow. Prehabing these areas of the body will strengthen the muscles and joints that are risk of injury.