Physio Explains: Tips For Preventing Sports Injuries
Let’s Be Proactive In Injury Prevention
Sports injuries are common and can be hard to recover from. The physiotherapist in Dublin wants to help you prevent them – find out how!
With so many people playing sports, it’s no wonder that there are so many sports injuries.
Sports physiotherapy is a specialty that deals with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of these types of injuries. If you’re an athlete or someone who participates in regular exercise, take note: there are plenty of ways to avoid getting injured during your next workout session or game!
How To Prevent Sports Injuries
There are many risk factors that increase the likelihood of injury. Our physiotherapists believe that it is important to be aware of them. The following are some factors that you can control:
- Frequency.
- Duration.
- Form.
- Inadquent Recovery Time.
- Not listening to your body.
- Too Much, Too Soon.
- Strength/Capacity.
- Warm-up And Cool-Down.
Many of the clients I see in practice with sports injuries – have one of two primary drivers or causes linked to your injury. Either it was something out of their control, for example, they were hit by an opponent and twisted their knee, or it was something that was in their control. For example, they wanted to keep going even though their body was telling them to slow down and the competitive nature of the game got the better of them – and now they are paying the cost. That’s okay – most sports injuries can be rehabilitated, although it takes time and hard work.
Frequency
Simply training too much puts you at a high risk of injury. You need to find a balance between fight and flight, and rest and digest. Because sports can be stressful on the body if you play too hard, too much.
If you play a sport and equally find time to rest and recover you will feel the benefits, like an increase in strength and endurance, you will have more energy, your mood and concentration will even improve. To achieve gains in strength and overall performance you need to train effectively, but you also need rest days or days in ‘active recovery’.
The frequency of exercise or sports should be dependent on the kind of training or the intensity of the training. High-intensity training 6-7 days a week may increase the risk of breakdown and injury. But if you mix in mobility exercises and low-intensity exercise two days a week, that will be very beneficial – and promote the benefits from the high-intensity exercise.
Duration
When you are training, the duration of your workouts can be just as important as its frequency.
Training for too long is another way to increase your risk of injury. Try not to overdo it on either activity or rest – do what feels right and listen closely to your body’s cues that tell you when you need more time to recover.
Form
When you’re practicing your sport, it’s important to always train with good form – which means doing the movement correctly every time. If you are not training properly, or if your body is fatigued, this can put a strain on other parts of the body and increase the risk of injury.
If you make a conscious effort to train with good form, it will also help you identify any imbalances in your body and allow for improvements when needed – which can prevent injury.
Inadquent Recovery Time
The physiotherapists at Dublin Chiropractic & Physiotherapy recommend that active recovery activities, like a light walk or a bike ride, should be done on rest days or after training sessions. So this is not another workout, but gentle movement to help you recover for your next training session or game.
This is usually done at a low intensity so it does not induce a stress response but instead allows your body to recuperate, rebuild and adapt.
Not Listening To Your Body
Often when you are training for an event or playing a competitive sport it is easy to push through the pain barrier. However, physiotherapists believe that this can be dangerous if done repeatedly over a long period of time.
When you are not listening to your body, it means that you may be overloading injured areas or simply ignoring symptoms – which can lead to a serious injury down the line if adequate rehabilitation is not undertaken. By staying within our limits physiotherapists encourage clients to focus on their bodies and understand what they need in order to be in the best shape for training or competition.
Mobility Exercises
No one likes stretching, but many people find mobility work before and after a workout helps them feel less stiff, whatever their age.
Regular mobility work may help reduce stiffness when training.
A physio can advise how often to do mobility work for your sport.
Warm-up And Cool-Down
It is important to always warm-up and cool down before and after a workout.
A physiotherapist will advise you on how best to prepare for each activity or sport – but physiotherapy in Dublin recommends that stretching, walking and mobility work are essential components of any good warm-up routine. This not only helps increase your heart rate but prepares the body for strenuous activity or sport.
An adequate cooldown is also imperative to physiotherapy in Dublin because it helps your heart rate and blood pressure return gradually to normal levels.
Warming up before exercise is vital, physiotherapists in Dublin recommend that you do a range of dynamic exercises to raise your heart rate and then follow this with some light stretches. This helps the muscles warm up and prepares you for exercise.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading this blog about sports injuries, I hope you found it helpful and now have a few ways to prevent sports injuries and improve your performance.