Avoid Getting Sidelined: 5 Expert Tips for Preventing Sports Injuries

Sports provide a great way to stay healthy, whether a youth or an adult. Competing in a sport keeps you physically active, improving cardiovascular health and helping you maintain a healthy weight. Sports' focus, skill-building, and excitement can even improve your mental health.

These are all excellent reasons to take care of avoiding sports injuries. After a sports injury, you may need to rest for an extended recovery period. Severe sports injuries may even prevent you from being able to return to your sport. Focus on sports injury prevention if you don’t want to be sidelined this season!

At Burlingame Orthopedics, we’re here to help prevent sports injuries. Board-certified orthopedic surgeon Dr. Richard Han and his team provide expert sports medicine care to new and existing patients from around Burlingame, California.

1. Use the right equipment for your sport

Sports typically involve specialized sporting equipment. Your joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles, and bones need the right support, cushioning, and padding to absorb the stress of being pushed to the limit without injury. Some sports create risks to your head and spine, which are lowered when using the proper protective gear.

Review the equipment you'll need when you decide to compete seriously in a sport. It might be tempting to skip stocking up on new sporting equipment, especially if last year’s shoes still fit just fine.

However, specialized sports equipment provides the right support for your body under specific conditions. It may not work as well if not used for the intended purpose. Gear wears out over time, becoming less effective at preventing sports injuries.

2. Take the time to cool down

After practice, a meet, a competition, or even an intense workout, take time to fully cool down before moving on to the next part of your busy schedule. Cool-down exercises like stretches or walking after running help your body gradually transition down from high-intensity activity. 

Your body temperature and heart rate slowly decrease during cool-down activity as stretching gradually relaxes your muscles. 

Cooling down gradually lets your body process waste products like lactic acid, which can build up after intense exercise and cause cramping or muscle stiffness later on. You may also experience blood pooling issues, especially in your lower body, without a proper cool-down session.

3. Always warm up

Just as you need to cool down after exercise, your body also benefits from slowly warming up before intense or athletic activity. Warm-up stretches and exercises gradually increase blood flow and breath rate and encourage muscles, tendons, and ligaments to soften and become more elastic.

Without the correct warm-up, you’re vulnerable to stress injuries. Tendons that haven’t been warmed up are more likely to strain or break, and muscles that aren’t warmed up can tense and cramp. Ask Dr. Han about the proper warm-up routine for you.

4. Strengthen your core muscles

Each sport comes with its own set of common sports injuries. Depending on the sport you play, your feet, knees, forearms, or shoulders may be at risk for injury due to accumulated repetitive stress or trauma occurring on the field.

Your protective gear, as well as your warm-up and cool-down time, typically protects the parts of your body most at risk from the pressures of your sport. But, no matter what type of athletic activity you pursue, strengthening your core muscles protects you from sports injuries.

A strong core takes pressure off your limbs and spine so that shocks are absorbed by muscles, not bones, tendons, or ligaments. Adding core-strengthening exercises to your workout routine lowers your risk of falls, bad landings, and other situations that can injure you.

5. Partner with a sports medicine specialist

For personalized advice on preventing sports injuries based on your medical history, physiology, and athletic goals, partner with a specialist like Dr. Han at Burlingame Orthopedics for your sports medicine care. Personalized recommendations for equipment, taping, stretches and exercises, and even physical therapy can all keep you from being sidelined by an injury.

Contact Burlingame Orthopedics online or over the phone today to schedule an appointment and receive top-quality sports medicine care.