Overtraining is the most frequent cause of injuries associated with sports activities. Enthusiastic but out-of-shape beginners often injure themselves by doing too much activity too soon. One strategy to prevent overuse injury to a particular muscle group or body part is to vary your fitness activities throughout the week to give muscles and joints a rest. Establishing realistic but challenging fitness goals can help you maintain a high level of motivation while ensuring that you do not overdo it.

Causes of Sports Injuries

There are two common sports injuries: overuse and traumatic. Overuse injuries occur because of cumulative, day-after-day stresses placed on tendons, bones, and ligaments during exercise. The forces that occur normally during physical activity are not enough to cause a ligament sprain or muscle strain, but when these forces are applied on a daily basis for weeks or months they can result in an injury. Common sites of overuse injuries are the leg, knee, shoulder, and elbow joints.

Traumatic injuries, which occur suddenly and violently, typically by accident, are the second major type of fitness­related injuries. Typical traumatic injuries are broken bones, torn ligaments and muscles, contusions, and lacerations. If your traumatic injury causes a noticeable loss of function and immediate pain or pain that does not go away after 30 minutes, you should have a physician examine it. Many people today are turning to personal trainers to help them avoid injuries or work around injuries they have developed from past exercise routines.

Overuse injuries Injuries that result from the cumulative effects of day-after-day stresses placed on tendons, muscles, and joints.

Traumatic injuries Injuries that are accidental in nature; they occur suddenly and violently(e.g., fractured bones, ruptured tendons, and sprained ligaments).

Treatment

First-aid treatment for virtually all personal fitness injuries involves RICE: rest, ice, compression, and elevation. Rest, the first component of this treatment, is required to eliminate the risk of further irritation of the injured body part Ice is applied to relieve the pain of the injury and to constrict the blood vessels in order to slow and stop any internal or external bleeding associated with the injury. Never apply ice cubes, reusable gel ice packs, chemical cold packs, or other forms of cold directly to your skin. Instead, place a layer of wet toweling or elastic bandage between the ice and your skin. Ice should be applied to a new injury for approximately. minutes every hour for the first 24 to 72 hours. Compression of the injured body part can be accomplished with a 4- or 6-inch-wide elastic bandage; this applies indirect pressure to damaged blood vessels to help stop bleeding. Be careful, though, that the compression wrap does not interfere with normal blood flow. A throbbing, painful hand or foot is an indication that the compression wrap was applied too tightly and should be loosened. Elevation of the injured extremity above the level of your heart also helps to control internal or external bleeding by making the blood flow uphill to reach the injured area.

Physical Fitness Through Exercise

What Do You Think?

To this point, Shawn hadn’t been very physically active throughout his life. While in high school he didn’t enjoy the physical education classes because he didn’t have the fitness level needed for most of the competitive activities like basketball and soccer. Now 20 years old and a sophomore in college, Shawn typically drives his car to campus rather than walking the six blocks from his apartment. Shawn’s idea of a complete meal is a large pepperoni pizza delivered to his door, and washed down with a large soda. To relax, he’ll play one of the many computer games he owns. Recently Shawn saw a TV show that described the adverse health effects of the sedentary lifestyle-obesity, high blood pressure, increased risk of heart disease, and colon cancer He realized that he has made some poor choices and was determined to no longer be a couch potato.

Now that Shawn is ready to live a more active lifestyle, how should he begin? After years of not exercising, with what types of exercises should he begin? Should Shawn see his family physician before he starts his exercise program? How long will he need to continue a physical activity program before he notices the positive effects of regular exercise?