A sports injury is quite difficult to take, both physically and psychologically. If you’re a professional athlete, a sports injury can also cause financial trouble and put your entire career at risk. Still, it’s something that you need to learn how to live and deal with. There’s no athlete out there who hasn’t suffered through a myriad of sports injuries. In fact, for every 10,000 professional athletes, around 1,500 are injured at every given moment. Therefore, since this is so inevitable and all-present, here are several tips to help you handle it all.

Most common injury types

The most common sports injuries are:
• Ankle sprain
• Shoulder dislocation
• Lower back sprain
• Knee sprain
• Elbow injuries
This suggests that a sports injury is something more likely to happen at the weakest points of your body once you’re exposed to either too much pressure or sudden stress. General preparedness and fitness can minimize the risk of a sports injury but the problem with some of these areas is that you cannot strengthen them. Sure, you can increase muscle and bone density but strengthening your joints and tendons (while possible to a degree) is not what you expect it to be.

Never skip stretching

The lack of motion before an intense workout is one of the things that will cause an injury. You see, when your body is dormant, the muscles are cold and tight. This will result first in stiffness and then in an injury. Now, the majority of people skip stretching because they want to save time. Just think about how much time you will waste in the recovery process due to an avoidable injury. When in rush, it is better to skip a whole training than to skip stretching first.

Look for professional help

No matter how confident you are in your own body’s regeneration abilities, you won’t be able to fully recover without professional help. According to experts behind Revive Physiotherapy, the idea that you should rest through your injury is not always a good one. Sometimes, you need to start slowly recharging your body to get it up to full speed. This involves specially prescribed and supervised therapy.

The repeated accident is more dangerous

A sports injury that is not fully healed will return over and over again. However, while this is the same injury, things will get worse every time. Your tissue scars and even though you might feel like the recovery was 100% successful, the scar will remain there. During training, you’re pushing your body to the limit. This means that once the breaks start to show, they will become the most evident at the weakest link. This weakest link will also likely be the spot of the last injury.

Maintaining the optimal body weight

Sometimes, when you gain weight, you become more likely to suffer a sports injury. This is because your musculature, skeleton, and joints have to bear more weight every single second. In combat sports cutting weight can cause a significant shock to your entire body. Now, while you may say that injuries in combat sports are inevitable, the truth is that the long-term metabolic effects of weight cutting can make any sports injury even more severe. So, the more weight you gain between matches, the more you’ll have to cut. The more you have to cut, the unhealthier the process becomes.

Strengthen your body

Ignoring or neglecting one group of muscles is usually something that increases the likelihood of injury. Sure, every sport has primary exercises and the most important group of muscles for a particular activity. However, the competition-level performance will put a strain on your entire body. This is something you need to prepare for and try to avert if possible.

In conclusion

The best you can do is invest some time and effort into learning how to minimize the odds of developing a personal injury. Strengthening your body, maintaining optimal weight at all times, and stretching/warming up before the training is crucial. Knowing how to recover when (if) you suffer from an injury is also a massive issue that you need to focus on. These are the skills that every athlete (both professional and recreational) needs to have in their arsenal.

Author's Bio: 

I, Isaac Brunt, am an experienced Lifestyle writer and consultant. Driven by Passion and Professionalism, I take pride in providing the best research and articles possible. After so many years of working in the industry, my passion for my work still grows.