Athlete's at any level of sport either amateur or professional can experience extreme highs such as winning, setting records and even scoring the winning goal. However, no athlete is free from experiencing the lows of sport like losing the big game, missed opportunity or the lowest of all lows, suffering a serious injury. So in this post we will look at:
- Types of injuries.
- The top signs of an injury.
- Tips on how to prevent them.
So, let's begin.....
The Types of Injuries sustained while playing Sport
Every person who performs some form of activity whether it be running through the park on a Saturday morning or a professional sports star playing in front of 50,000 people, Anyone can get Injured at Anytime. Injuries can range from:
- Bruised Muscles
- Sprained Joints
- Pulled Muscles
- Torn Tendons
- Ruptured Ligaments
Each injury will have its own treatment plan and recovery timeline but here we'll be looking at ACL injuries.
How you can Injury your Anterior Cruciate Ligament
Unfortunately ACL injuries are becoming more and more common each day, impacting the lives and careers of many people. While performing exercises or playing in sports games there are two common ways someone can injury their ACL:
- Non Contact: This is when an athlete gets injured without touching or being touch by anyone, people will either land awkwardly from a jump or their knee collapses under them while they're turning sharply at a great speed.
- Contact: This is when one person collides with an other person or opposition player, taking a direct hit to the knee.
Signs of an ACL Injury
Your knee Buckles or Gives Way
- Whether it was a Contact or Non Contact situation that has led you to becoming injured, one of the first signs of an ACL injury is the feeling of your knee buckling or giving way underneath you.
- Your knee has a strict range of motion of which it follows, and so during the incident your knee may have shifted in a direction that goes against it's own range of motion, causing you to feel a buckling sensation.
- However depending on size of the shift or the direction it moved in, this may affect other ligaments or cartilage in the knee without injuring the Anterior Cruciate Ligament.
A loud Pop or Crack sound
- If your knee was to buckle or give way, it would be soon followed by a load pop or crack which would be heard and also felt.
- The majority of patients who have suffered an ACL injury say they felt or heard one or multiple load cracks and/or pops.
- Once again this may depend on the direction of which the knee travelled, but any pops or cracks within the knee can indicate that the anterior cruciate ligament may have either slightly Torn or completely Ruptured.
Immediate Severe Pain
- The pain you feel in your knee will be a good indicator for the severity of damage, so if the level of pain is high then unfortunately this may result in serious damage.
- The first 30 seconds after the incident will be filled with throbbing pain and agony, which will seems like it is going to last forever. Once this initial trauma passes continuous pain may linger for long periods of time after the incident, it may also worsen with every movement you make before eventually subsiding.
Swelling around the Knee
- Swelling can occurs for multiple reasons like illness, infection and if someone has suffered an injury. When injuries happen a fluid like substance gathers around the affected area for example, your knee.
- So following the incident you will begin to notice that your knee has become inflamed, the skin is becoming enlarged and your knee is doubling in size.
- Swelling around the knee will indicate that severe damage has been done, but may not 100% confirm the ACL has been damaged.
Struggle to Run or Walk
- For some patients who suffer an ACL injury they may struggle to run, while others may struggle to walk, these side effects can help provide more information about the seriousness of the injury.
- Depending on the severity of the injury each person will differ in results. For example, if someone suffers a grade 1 injury then they may have trouble running, however if someone suffers a grade 3 injury then they may have trouble walking and even feel like their knee is unstable.
Ways to help Prevent ACL Injuries
Structured Warm Ups
- Before you start exercising or playing a game you first need to activate the muscles of the body and increase your heart rate to optimise performance, this is where a structured warm up is performed
- However, a structured warm up can also have major benefits for injury prevention, some studies show that a 15 minute warm up can lead to a reduced risk of injury while performing exercises or playing sport.
- Warning Up before exercise or sports allows the body to slowly adjust to the level of stress being applied, while also moves the joints through a range of motion.
Strength and Conditioning Program
- Strength and Conditioning programs hold a variety of fitness components like muscular strength, muscular endurance or cardiovascular training styles.
- Each component can be used by anyone to sustain a healthy lifestyle and improve high level performance. But they can also be used to reduce the risk of injury by conditioning the body, making your muscles and joints more durable when undergoing a great amounts of stress.
- Fitting these components into a specific program that's suitable to you and your needs can dramatically decrease the likelihood of injury or re-injury.
Correct Technique
- When performing exercises like weightlifting and plyometric in the gym or exercises like running and sprinting while playing sports, proper technique should always be used and implemented.
- Using the correct technique when performing exercises will allow you to gain the full benefits of each rep & set and also allow you to perform each exercise as safely as possible, thus reducing the chances of injury.
Rest & Recovery
- While exercising with proper technique or warming up correctly forces your body to move, one of the most important steps in reducing the risk of injury is to rest and recover.
- Allowing your body time to heal, relax or reboot is as important as training your body for an upcoming activities. During training plans or rehabilitation programs your body or knee will undergo a great deal of stress and without scheduled periods of rest or recover your body may become fatigued.
- When the body or knee becomes fatigued through exercise, instead of having a positive effect on the body it actually has a negative effect causing your muscles to weaken and placing you at a great risk of injury.
- Appropriate rest and recovery after each session and during training programs will allow you to stay healthy and more importantly can help you stay Injury free.
Are ACL Injuries 100% Preventable?
The simple answer is NO, whether you play Soccer, Golf, American Football or Tennis no injury is 100% preventable. There are many scenarios that can cause an injury for example, contact injuries like colliding with another player or non-contact injuries like landing awkwardly, unfortunately these scenarios can happen in games without warning. However, the methods of prevention above are used to decrease the chances of injuries, allowing players to perform at high levels with less of a risk of serious or minor injury.
Now that you've finished reading what are your thoughts about the information,
- Did you find it helpful?
- Did any of these sign happen to you?
- What are you doing to help prevent injuries?
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