Playing sports is an integral part of a healthy and active lifestyle. They’re good for heart health, lung function, keeping up muscle strength, and even boosting your immune system to keep you healthy all together. Sometimes, however, accidents happen and sports injuries occur. People move the wrong way, twist a little too far, fall, or even collide in ways the body doesn’t love and the game is changed.
Today, we're answering the question, “what are the most common sports injuries?” as well as methods for prevention and recovery. While the potential for injury shouldn’t deter you from playing sports, learning how to recover from sports injuries (or prevent them in the first place) is vital if you’re going to participate. Read on and keep yourself in top shape.
WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON SPORTS INJURIES?
First of all, what are the most common sports injuries? If you’re thinking along the lines of pulled muscles and twisted ankles, you’d be right. There are other common sports injuries that you may not have considered, however, so it’s important to learn about them in order to know how to prevent them or what you can do to enhance sports injury recovery.
Some of the most common sports injuries are:
- Muscle strains
- Sprains to ligaments
- ACL tears or sprains
- Tennis elbow (or golf elbow)
- Back pain or injuries like a herniated disc
- Concussions
- Pulled hamstrings
- Knee injuries
As you can see, answering the question, “what are the most common sports injuries?” brings up a lengthy list of potential suspects. Other notable sports injuries worth mentioning as being common also include things like shin splints and shoulder injuries.
HOW TO RECOVER FROM COMMON SPORTS INJURIES (OR PREVENT THEM!)
We can’t answer the question, “what are the most common sports injuries?” without also discussing ways to prevent or recover from them. Whether it’s lower back pain after golf, pulling a muscle while running, or anything in between, sports injuries sometimes happen. When it comes to prevention and recovery, however, it’s important to know what distinguishes acute and chronic sports injuries.
Acute sports injuries are injuries that occur suddenly and most often are the result of a trauma of some kind such as broken bone, torn muscle, or abrasions. Most often, they’re accompanied by instant pain and may be debilitating. Conversely, chronic sports injuries are the results of prolonged repetitive motions causing bodily damage during physical activity. These types of repetitive motion injuries–like shin splints or tennis elbow–tend to stem from overuse or improper technique.
Learning how to prevent or recover from common sports can be as simple as following some of these tips:
- Stretching properly before physical activity
- Having a post workout recovery routine
- Getting massages regularly
- Practicing the R.I.C.E. method for sports injuries
Stretching Properly Before Physical Activity
With any form of physical activity, having a warm up routine is absolutely essential. Cold muscles don’t stretch or move as easily and are much more likely to incur injury than those warmed up. The best kind of stretches to warm your muscles up are dynamic stretches. These kinds of active stretching help your muscles warm up and improve mobility and flexibility before you start. Depending on the activity you’re engaging in, these can be different things.
For example, if you’re a runner, try lunges, leg swings, and stretching out your groin area as part of your routine for preventing running injuries. Before playing a round of golf, you might do exercises like twisting stretches and standing side stretches to open up your hip, back, and shoulder muscles and prepare them for the rotating movements of a golf swing.
Have a Post Workout Recovery Routine
As you look at the answer to, “what are the most common sports injuries?” you’ll notice that prevention doesn’t just take place before being active. Having a post workout recovery routine in place is critical for taking care of your body after playing sports, as well. This can help your muscles cool down properly, start the process of healing damaged muscles or tendons, and potentially prevent painful conditions like Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS).
Parts of a post workout recovery routine often include things like simple stretches, taking a warm shower, rehydrating, and eating a nutritionally-balanced meal to refuel. Many athletes also turn to the benefits of luxury massage chairs to help keep muscles loose as they relax in the comfort of their own home.
Getting a Massage for Sports Injury Prevention and Recovery
Speaking of a massage, studies have shown that the benefits of massage therapy for athletes include reduced post-exercise pain or muscle fatigue, reduced inflammation due to exercise-induced muscle injury, improved muscle strength, lower blood pressure, and more. With so many potential benefits, it’s easy to see why getting a massage regularly is important for preventing and recovering from common sports injuries.
Unfortunately, maintaining regular massage therapist appointments can be difficult for a busy schedule and tough on the wallet. This is why many athletes have turned to the benefits of massage therapy at home by using luxury massage chairs, instead. Today’s full body massage chairs offer a wide variety of different types of massage programs and bonus features to take care of all your bodily needs. From zero gravity massage chairs that help increase blood circulation for faster recovery to AI massage chairs that use two types of body scanning to deliver a custom massage each use, these aren’t the models of decades past!
Massage chair features like chromotherapy and the benefits of heat therapy also help with prevention and recovery of the most common sports injuries. Other options like 3D vs 4D massage chair models give athletes choices over how much control they want. While 3D massage chairs allow rollers to extend out from the massage chair track and stay connected to your body, 4D massage chairs add control over adjustable speed and rhythm.
Regardless of your choice, both 3D and 4D massage chairs have advanced to effectively remove any difference between using a massage chair vs. human massage. Add in the ability to use one whenever you want from the comfort of your own home, and you can start to see just how many benefits of owning a massage chair there are!
R.I.C.E. Method for Sports Injuries
When you’re looking at answers to the question, “what are the most common sports injuries?” then chances are you’ve come across the R.I.C.E. method for treating them, as well. Considered the immediate go-to for typical sports injuries like sprains or pulled muscles, this method can play a key part in how to make an injury recover faster, reduce pain, and control inflammation.
The acronym R.I.C.E stands for:
- Rest
- Ice
- Compression
- Elevation
Like all forms of sports injury recovery, this method works best when applied as quickly as possible. Waiting to treat a sports injury could result in a loss of mobility and flexibility or even a possible permanent decrease in athletic performance.
We hope this guide has answered the question, “what are the most common sports injuries?” and given you a few considerations for how to prevent and recover from injuries if they happen. Playing sports is a great way to be active and lead a healthy lifestyle, but accidents do happen and overuse can occur. Be smart and take precautions like warming up properly, having a post workout recovery routine, and choosing a massage chair for recovery to keep your body in top condition so you can get back out and play!
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