What Are Sports Injuries?

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1 Fast Facts: An Easy-to-Read Series of Pubications for the Pubic Sports injuries are injuries that happen when paying sports or exercising. Some are from accidents. Others can resut from poor training practices or improper gear. Some peope get injured when they are not in proper condition. Not warming up or stretching enough before you pay or exercise can aso ead to injuries. The most common sports injuries are: Sprains and strains Knee injuries Swoen musces Achies tendon injuries Pain aong the shin bone Fractures Disocations. U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services Pubic Heath Service Nationa Institute of Arthritis and Muscuoskeeta and Skin Diseases Nationa Institutes of Heath 1 AMS Circe Bethesda, MD Phone: To free: NIAMS TTY: Fax: Emai: NIAMSinfo@mai.nih.gov Web site: What s the Difference Between an Acute and a Chronic Injury? There are two kinds of sports injuries: acute and chronic. Acute injuries occur suddeny when paying or exercising. Sprained ankes, strained backs, and fractured hands are acute injuries. Signs of an acute injury incude: Sudden, severe pain Sweing Not being abe to pace weight on a eg, knee, anke, or foot An arm, ebow, wrist, hand, or finger that is very tender Not being abe to move a joint as norma Extreme eg or arm weakness A bone or joint that is visiby out of pace. Chronic injuries happen after you pay a sport or exercise for a ong time. Signs of a chronic injury incude: Pain when you pay Pain when you exercise A du ache when you rest Sweing. What Shoud I Do if I Get Injured? Never try to work through the pain of a sports injury. Stop paying or exercising when you fee pain. Paying or exercising more ony causes more harm. Updated June

2 Fast Facts: An Easy-to-Read Series of Pubications for the Pubic Some injuries shoud be seen by a doctor right away. Others you can treat yoursef. Ca a doctor when: The injury causes severe pain, sweing, or numbness You can t put any weight on the area An od injury hurts or aches An od injury swes The joint doesn t fee norma or fees unstabe. If you don t have any of these signs, it may be safe to treat the injury at home. If the pain or other symptoms get worse, you shoud ca your doctor. Use the RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, and Eevation) method to reieve pain, reduce sweing, and speed heaing. Foow these four steps right after the injury occurs and do so for at east 48 hours: Rest. Reduce your reguar activities. If you ve injured your foot, anke, or knee, take weight off of it. A crutch can hep. If your right foot or anke is injured, use the crutch on the eft side. If your eft foot or anke is injured, use the crutch on the right side. Ice. Put an ice pack to the injured area for 20 minutes, four to eight times a day. You can use a cod pack or ice bag. You can aso use a pastic bag fied with crushed ice and wrapped in a towe. Take the ice off after 20 minutes to avoid cod injury. Compression. Put even pressure (compression) on the injured area to hep reduce sweing. You can use an eastic wrap, specia boot, air cast, or spint. Ask your doctor which one is best for your injury. Eevation. Put the injured area on a piow, at a eve above your heart, to hep reduce sweing. How Are Sports Injuries Treated? Treatment often begins with the RICE method. Here are some other things your doctor may do to treat your sports injury. Nonsteroida Anti-Infammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) Your doctor wi suggest that you take a nonsteroida anti-infammatory drug (NSAID) such as aspirin, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, or naproxen sodium. These drugs reduce sweing and pain. You can buy them at a drug store. Another common drug is acetaminophen. It may reieve pain, but it wi not reduce sweing. Immobiization Immobiization is a common treatment for sports injuries. It keeps the injured area from moving and prevents more damage. Sings, spints, casts, and eg immobiizers are used to immobiize sports injuries. 2

3 Fast Facts: An Easy-to-Read Series of Pubications for the Pubic Surgery In some cases, surgery is needed to fix sports injuries. Surgery can fix torn tendons and igaments or put broken bones back in pace. Most sports injuries don t need surgery. Rehabiitation (Exercise) Rehabiitation is a key part of treatment. It invoves exercises that step by step get the injured area back to norma. Moving the injured area heps it to hea. The sooner this is done, the better. Exercises start by genty moving the injured body part through a range of motions. The next step is to stretch. After a whie, weights may be used to strengthen the injured area. As injury heas, scar tissue forms. After a whie, the scar tissue shrinks. This shrinking brings the injured tissues back together. When this happens, the injured area becomes tight or stiff. This is when you are at greatest risk of injuring the area again. You shoud stretch the musces every day. You shoud aways stretch as a warmup before you pay or exercise. Don t pay your sport unti you are sure you can stretch the injured area without pain, sweing, or stiffness. When you start paying again, start sowy. Buid up step by step to fu speed. Rest Athough it is good to start moving the injured area as soon as possibe, you must aso take time to rest after an injury. A injuries need time to hea; proper rest heps the process. Your doctor can guide you on the proper baance between rest and rehabiitation. Other Therapies Other common therapies that hep with the heaing process incude mid eectrica currents (eectrostimuation), cod packs (cryotherapy), heat packs (thermotherapy), sound waves (utrasound), and massage. What Can Peope Do to Prevent Sports Injuries? These tips can hep you avoid sports injures. Don t bend your knees more than haf way when doing knee bends. Don t twist your knees when you stretch. Keep your feet as fat as you can. When jumping, and with your knees bent. Do warmup exercises before you pay any sport. Aways stretch before you pay or exercise. Don t overdo it. Coo down after hard sports or workouts. Wear shoes that fit propery, are stabe, and absorb shock. Use the softest exercise surface you can find; don t run on asphat or concrete. Run on fat surfaces. 3

4 Fast Facts: An Easy-to-Read Series of Pubications for the Pubic For aduts: Don t be a weekend warrior. Don t try to do a week s worth of activity in a day or two. Learn to do your sport right. Use proper form to reduce your risk of overuse injuries. Use safety gear. Know your body s imits. Buid up your exercise eve graduay. Strive for a tota body workout of cardiovascuar, strength-training, and fexibiity exercises. For parents and coaches: Group chidren by their ski eve and body size, not by their age, especiay for contact sports. Match the chid to the sport. Don t push the chid too hard to pay a sport that she or he may not ike or be abe to do. Try to find sports programs that have certified athetic trainers. See that a chidren get a physica exam before paying. Don t pay a chid who is injured. Get the chid to a doctor, if needed. Provide a safe environment for sports. For chidren: Be in proper condition to pay the sport. Get a physica exam before you start paying sports. Foow the rues of the game. Wear gear that protects, fits we, and is right for the sport. Know how to use athetic gear. Don t pay when you are very tired or in pain. Aways warm up before you pay. Aways coo down after you pay. What Research Is Being Done on Treating Sports Injuries? Today, treating a sports injury is much better than in the past. Most peope who get sports injuries pay sports and exercise again. Doctors have many new ways to treat sports injuries. Some of these new ways incude: Arthroscopy (fiber optic scopes put through sma cuts in the skin to see inside joints) Tissue engineering (using a person s own tissues or ces to hep hea injuries) Targeted pain reief (pain-reducing drug patches put directy on the injured area). Advanced imaging techniques (ike x rays) that wi ead to better diagnosis and treatment. 4

5 Fast Facts: An Easy-to-Read Series of Pubications for the Pubic For More Information About Sports Injuries and Other Reated Conditions: Nationa Institute of Arthritis and Muscuoskeeta and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) Nationa Institutes of Heath 1 AMS Circe Bethesda, MD Phone: To free: NIAMS ( ) TTY: Fax: Emai: NIAMSinfo@mai.nih.gov Web site: The information in this pubication was summarized in easy-to-read format from information in a more detaied NIAMS pubication. To order the Sports Injuries Handout on Heath fu-text version, pease contact NIAMS using the contact information above. To view the compete text or to order onine, visit For Your Information This fact sheet contains information about medications used to treat the heath condition discussed here. When this fact sheet was printed, we incuded the most up-to-date (accurate) information avaiabe. Occasionay, new information on medication is reeased. For updates and for any questions about any medications you are taking, pease contact the Food and Drug Administration at 888 INFO FDA ( , a to-free ca) or visit its Web site at 5