6 Common Sports Injuries

admin - 12 October 2012 - 7:00 am

There are certain injuries that can really mess up those who have a career in sports. Most of these injuries are minor, but even the smallest pain can throw off your game. These are some of the sports injuries that are most common that you should look out for.

Muscle Pull: This is the most common sports injury and can happen to just about any muscle in your body. Sure, you may stretch and warm up before you play, but you can even pull a muscle from overuse, fatigue or taking a fall. Not much can be done to avoid this from happening, but you can stay limber and work your muscles often to lessen your chances for injury.
Neck Pain: A pulled muscle or a muscle spasm in your neck usually causes neck pain, which typically happens when a tennis player looks up to serve or hit overhead. It tends to hurt the most when you turn your head in the direction of the pain. Cyclists with racing handlebars may get neck stiffness after a long ride because the neck muscles have tightened and gone into spasm from such an awkward position.
Tennis Elbow: Tennis elbow is an inflammation of your forearm muscles and the tendon that connects the muscles to the bones in your elbow. These muscles bend the wrist backward and cause the wrist to turn the palm face up. When the muscles and tendon become inflamed from overuse, the pain is felt on the outside of your elbow. When a tennis player hits the ball late on the backhand side, this aggravates the elbow and strains the forearm muscles and tendon. Turning your wrist constantly to put a spin on the ball also causes a significant amount of pain when playing tennis. This injury most commonly affects golfers, tennis players, baseball players, and weight lifters.
Runner’s Knee: Runner’s knee is the most common kind of knee pain and is due to the misalignment of the kneecap in its groove. This causes the cartilage on the side of the groove and the cartilage on the back of the kneecap to wear out. Sometimes fluid will even build up and cause your knee to swell up. This injury doesn’t just happen to runners, though. It can happen to anyone who plays a sport that involves running.
Ankle Sprain: Ankle sprains typically occur when your foot rolls to the outside and sprains the ligaments on the outside of the ankle. As a result, the ankle swells up and hurts very badly; it will most likely turn black and blue, too. This can happen when a tennis player lunges and lands on a poorly planted foot, when a jogger steps off a curb and “twists” his or her ankle, or even when a volleyball player jumps and lands on someone else’s foot. If you can put weight on your ankle after hurting it, your ankle isn’t broken. However, if you feel pain on the inside of your ankle then you should get it x-rayed to rule out anything like a hairline fracture.
Achilles Tendinitis: Achilles tendinitis is an inflammation of the tendon, which is typically due to overuse, for example jumping frequently in basketball or volleyball. The most common cause of this injury is consistent pronation of the ankle and foot, causing the Achilles tendon to pull off center. If you’ve had this happen to you, you will probably feel like you were shot with a gun in the leg. If it’s a partial tear, though, it will be harder to tell. If you feel intense pain when you stand on your toes, you will need to take a visit to your podiatrist right away.