Every day, a lot of people all over the world participate in games and sports activities or competitions. Participation in sports improves physical fitness and overall health and wellness .
Sports injuries result from acute trauma or repetitive stress associated with athletic activities. Sports injuries can affect bones or soft tissue (ligaments, muscles, tendons). There are numerous sports injuries happened in the field of sports.
Statistics
A 2016 study found that 8.6 million people, ages 5 to 24, have a sports injury every year in the United States. Researchers note males ages 5 to 24 make up more than half of all sports injury episodes.
The lower body is most likely to be injured (42 percent). The upper extremities make up 30.3 percent of injuries. Head and neck injuries combine for 16.4 percent of sports injuries.
The team approach and proper planning
In modern sports injury management, a team approach involving the sports physician, physiotherapist, strength and conditioning coaches, sports psychologist, nutritionist, coach, and the athlete is critical. Most importantly the rehabilitation needs to follow a biopsychosocial approach
Common injuries
- Sprains. Overstretching or tearing the ligaments results in a sprain. Ligaments are pieces of tissue that connect two bones to one another in a joint.
- Strains. Overstretching or tearing muscles or tendons results in a sprain. Tendons are thick, fibrous cords of tissue that connect bone to muscle. Strains are commonly mistaken for sprains
- To help prevent sprains and strains, you should warm up properly before exercising and wear suitable footwear. Conditioning and strengthening exercises can also help
- Kneeinjuries. Any injury that interferes with how the knee joint moves could be a sports injury. It could range from an over stretch to a tear in the muscles or tissues in the knee.
- Achilles tendon rupture. The Achilles tendon is a thin, powerful tendon at the back of your ankle. During sports, this tendon can break or rupture. When it does, you may experience sudden, severe pain and difficulty walking.
- Fractures. Bone fractures are also known as broken bones.
- Dislocations. Sports injuries may dislocate a bone in your body. When that happens, a bone is forced out of its socket. This can be painful and lead to swelling and weakness.
- Rotator cuff injury. Four pieces of muscle work together to form the rotator cuff. The rotator cuff keeps your shoulder moving in all directions. A tear in any of these muscles can weaken the rotator cuff.
Shoulder impingement syndrome
- Shoulder impingement syndrome is a common cause of shoulder pain. It occurs when there is impingement of tendons from bones of the shoulder.
- Overhead activity of the shoulder, especially repeated activity, is a risk factor for shoulder impingement syndrome. Examples include: painting, lifting, swimming, tennis, and other overhead sports.
- Conservative treatment includes rest, cessation of painful activity, and physical therapy.
Aims of rehabilitation and planning
- The primary aim is a return to sports at a preinjury physical and emotional level and to prevent reinjury in addition to injury-specific rehabilitation, it is important to eliminate risk factors and identify why the injury happened in the first place.
- Restore function and performance to a preinjury level-strength and conditioning should aim to achieve power, strength, and endurance somewhat higher than what it was preinjury
- Safe return to the sport-Return to the sport can be interpreted differently by different members of the rehabilitation team
Stages of Sports Injury Rehabilitation
Acute phase: Promote tissue healing and avoid deconditioning
- Traditionally, clinicians have been employing a protocol inclusive of protection, rest, ice, compression, and elevation (P.R.I.C.E) with the aim of avoiding further tissue damage, reducing associated pain, edema, and attempt to promote the healing process
- It is wise to initiate a loading program as soon as pain permits. Introductory loading should involve a return to full weight bearing, which can also be achieved through hydrotherapy or weight-assisted treadmills
- Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound and neuromuscular electric stimulation are still used in the clinical setting in an attempt to manage inflammation and promote tissue healing
- In addition to the physical requirements, the multidisciplinary team needs to address the mental and emotional demands of elite sport as well. It is recommended that elite athletes undergo psychologicallyand nutritional interventionsearly in the program.
Reconditioning phase
Rehabilitation involving strength and conditioning in athletes could be highly variable as compared to the general population.
Restoring muscle endurance and power
Endurance is the muscle’s ability to work repeatedly without fatiguing. Muscle endurance is especially important in endurance sports such as long-distance running or cycling but is also important in sports such as football and rugby which involve repeated bursts of exercise .According to the injury
- Lower leg & ankle exercises
- Knee exercises & rehabilitation
- Hip & groin exercises
- Shoulder exercises
- Wrist & hand exercises
- Core strengthening
- Pilates exercises for sport
Improve flexibility
- Flexibility is the ability to extend or stretch without breaking. The term is usually used to describe muscles but can also be used to describe a movement involving a number of muscles (e.g. bending forwards in standing).
- Stretching & flexibility exercises
- Foam roller exercises
- It is highly important to continuously monitor the athlete rehabilitation to ensure optimum loading of injured and recovering tissues through an individualized approach according to the sport and its physical demand
Cardiorespiratory fitness
- Cardiorespiratory loading to maintain and improve aerobic capacity, in conjunction with neuromuscular training to maintain overall muscle strength, flexibility, and proprioception, has been well defined in literature.
- Activities like walking, jogging, running, cycling, swimming, aerobics, rowing, stair climbing, hiking, cross country skiing and many types of dancing are “pure” aerobic activities. Sports such as soccer, basketball, squash and tennis may also improve your cardiovascular fitness. However, endurance training could improve performance in these sports. Athletes typically use three training methods to improve their cardiovascular fitness:
- Slow to moderate-intensity distance training
- Moderate to high-intensity interval training
- High-intensity continuous exercise
- Most studies show that cardiovascular training requires a minimum of 30 minutes, 3 times a week to guarantee increased aerobic capacity in about 8 to 12 weeks.
- Athletes utilizing highintensity continuous training to increase their lactate threshold should exercise for 25 to 50 minutes depending upon their level of fitness.
- Aerobic training 3 to 5 days per week will improve your cardiovascular fitness.
Proprioception & balance
- Proprioception is the human body’s ability to detect movement and soft tissue stress and trigger a reaction to prevent injury e.g. reaction when stepping off a curb to prevent an ankle sprain. This is a much underestimated but extremely important part of the rehabilitation process for 2 reasons.
- Firstly, proprioception is often dampened or slowed down following an injury and needs to be re-trained,
- Secondly, some people have generally poor proprioception and they are significantly more prone to injuries.
Functional exercises
- Functional exercises are related to the sport or activity you are returning to. There are a number of generic exercises that can be applied to multiple sports and should be performed in the early stages of rehabilitation.
- However, to effectively and efficiently return to the specific sport during which the injury occurred it is important to perform exercises that replicate activities and movements in that particular sport
