Are you ready to join the baseball team at work, but feel that you are out of shape? Do you have weak muscles or wobbly ankles? If so, you don’t want to go into the game unprepared and sustain an injury. Protect yourself by preparing your body ahead of time so that you can stay in the game.
After you join the team, it’s important that you take precautions to prevent sports injuries – the most common being sprains (injuries to the tendons and ligaments), strains (various injuries to the muscle), and stress fractures (bone injuries). There are other health conditions to consider when playing sports, such as dehydration – which can cause headaches, but we will focus on injury prevention so that you can enjoy the game with your friends’ co-workers.
Here are 5 helpful tips to consider in preventing injuries before you play the ball game, or any other type of sport…
- Always warm up: Choose a warm-up that will prepare you for the sport. If you’re playing baseball, warm up the shoulders, arms, and knees for running. Warming up improves mobility and keeps the muscles loose and pliable — which reduces the risk of injury.
- Try stretching: It’s always good to stretch before any sports activity to increase your flexibility. Without flexibility, you may have shorter, tighter muscles, which increase the risk of injury.
- Wear protective gear: You need extra protection so that you can enjoy the game with less concern for injury. Be sure to wear knee pads, helmets, and other equipment that is specifically designed to guard vulnerable body parts.
- Make sure to rest: Rest can make you stronger and prevent injuries of overuse, fatigue and poor judgment. So…don’t over-do it. If you’re tired, take a break!
- Don’t play with pain: No need to look tough in front of your friends or co-workers. Stop the activity if you’re hurting. In doing so, you may prevent an injury from becoming serious or debilitating.
If you’re having a great time, but the game is interrupted due to an injury, don’t hesitate to step off of the field to prevent further damage. If necessary, you may need to see a doctor. Here are the most common “red flags” to let you know that your injury needs medical attention.
- The swelling doesn’t go down.
- Your pain gets progressively worse
- Bruises are not healing in a timely manner
- You have pain when at rest or at night
- Joints, such as knees, ankles, or elbows lock-up or seem unstable
It’s common for individual’s to ‘wait-out-the-pain’ and see if the injury goes away on its own. However, when you do this, you run the risk of further damage or a prolonged healing process – you never know!
Be careful and don’t try to treat yourself if you believe that you have a serious injury. There are many new minimally invasive treatments if pain becomes chronic and unmanageable after a sports injury. Seek a consultation with Dr. Kamson to see if you are a good candidate for minimally invasive regenerative therapy. Call (888) 712-0318 today!