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As a growing number of individuals exercise regularly to lose weight or become healthier, sports injuries occur more frequently. There can be various reasons for sports injuries, including incorrect posture or overuse of a muscle, as well as a lack of knowledge and preventative measures. Today, let me introduce sports injuries that many people may not fully understand.

Sports injuries are basically musculoskeletal injuries. For instance, jogging, running, and mountain climbing can cause damage to ankles, knee joints and the spine, while golfing can cause damage to shoulders and elbow joints. Worse than this, excessive exercise can lead to overuse syndrome. Excessive upper-body workouts can give you impingement syndrome, and golfing and playing tennis may result in serious elbow inflammation.

In most cases, injuries are the results of excessive workouts or overuse of muscles. As you get older, physical capabilities change. Muscle loss starts from the mid-30s, ligaments begin to become weaker from the 30s, and bones become more fragile from the 50s.

You need to consider these physical changes, your flexibility and your sex when you plan your workout routine. In particular a sudden increase in training volume or intensity without a gradual build-up is very dangerous. We have to be mindful that most cases of overuse syndrome come from these incorrect workouts. In addition, to avoid injury you should wear protective equipment according to weather conditions if necessary.

Acute injuries will cause immediate changes to the body, such as pain and swelling. On the other hand, it is not easy for ordinary people to detect chronic injuries by themselves, so you would be wise to visit a doctor if you feel unexpected pain or an unusual feeling during your workout.

For treating fractures, a cast is the most common type of therapy. For dislocations, non-surgical treatments are applied, however surgery can be performed for repeated dislocations of the shoulder. Most dislocated knee cases cause ligament injury, and so surgery for ligament repair or reconstruction is required. Cruciate ligament injuries or meniscus injuries usually end up with arthroscopic surgery.

A third-degree sprain means a complete rupture of the ligament that requires partial surgery, while muscle bruising in most cases can be treated non-surgically if the symptoms are not serious.

Warming-up and stretching are important processes both before and after exercise. They also send a signal to your body. Exercise without warming-up and stretching will raise the likelihood of physical injuries. In that sense, a warm-up and stretching cannot be missed out in a workout routine.

For example, athletes and swimmers walk or take a light jog before their race, and before their match boxers skip, or shadowbox guided by a trainer as a warm up. These activities will raise your body temperature and stimulate the motor centre of the cerebrum, so that our body can be prepared for intensive exercise and psychological pressure, while improving cardio pulmonary function. This process is also necessary to easily overcome the so-called “dead point”, where you feel physical pain right after a workout.

Stretching changes your body into the right condition for exercise by relieving or contracting muscles. This is a necessary step to prevent injuries during exercise. All you need to do is pull and stretch your muscles and tendons without using a rebounding force. To do this, slowly stretch out your body until you can feel bearable pain in your muscles and tendons, and hold the positions for 10 to 30 seconds.