The Most Common Sports Injuries Revealed
Many people feel aches and pains from exercise and taking part in sports, but some people can suffer from long-term sports injuries that often go untreated. Here is our list of the most common sports injuries so you can help identify them and treat them when they happen.
Groin Strains
Just about every kind of exercise and activity involves the muscles in the groin. From inside the thigh to the pelvis, these muscles are where a lot of the power in our legs comes from and are used when running, cycling, and sports.
The best treatment for groin strains is known as RICE; Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. You can treat this at home by laying flat on a sofa and elevating your legs by resting them on the arm. Use frozen peas or a bag of ice to cool the muscle and numb the pain. Just apply the ice for ten to fifteen minutes, and repeat every hour for three or four hours; this prevents damage to the skin from freezer burn.
Rotator Cuff Injuries
A rotator cuff is actually a group of four tendons that cuff the bone of your upper arm. Tendons attach muscle to bone, and these tendons attach the muscles in the arm to your shoulder and the bone in your upper arm, called the humerus bone.
These tendons help you rotate your arm relative to your shoulder, giving them the name rotator cuff. Injuries can be caused by a variety of different sports and activities, but they are most common in baseball, basketball, and weight lifting. Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation (RICE) is a good immediate treatment for a rotator cuff injury, but they will need to be assessed at a hospital where an MRI scan is often used to check the level of damage.
Ankle Sprains
These are one of the most common injuries because you don’t have to be playing sports or exercising to sprain your ankle, you can do it on a hike or even on a walk to work.
RICE is again the recommended treatment for bad sprains and twists of the ankle. This kind of injury does require some banding in order to compress the ankle and relieve pain. Having a well-stocked first-aid kit at home, at work, or in the car is great for treating these kinds of injuries. Rapid Rescue has a wide range of medical supplies at wholesale prices, helping you keep any size of first-aid kit fully stocked.
Runner’s Knee
Runner’s knee, also known as patella femoral syndrome, are common sports injuries that affects many different kinds of athletes, not just runners.
Runner’s knee can be a debilitating injury. It is a pain where the kneecap meets the thigh bone and behind the kneecap, or the patella. Long-term treatment for the injury can be difficult, and rest and elevation is the best immediate aid. Prevention is this injury’s best cure, and to do this an athlete must build up the muscles that surround the knee to make it more stable when under pressure.
These were the common sports injuries, so it is a good idea to be prepared and to know what to do if one happens around you. Remember that often the treatment is rest, ice, compression, and elevation.