Causes of Sports Injury
Though there is no such thing as a “safe” sport, highly competitive sports, such as football, weightlifting, gymnastics, and wrestling, pose particularly higher risks of injuries, especially among children.
According to experts, as much as 20 percent of all sport injuries involve the lower back or neck. Running and weightlifting, and other sports that involve repetitive impact, expose children to a high risk for lumbar (lower back) injuries. Contact sports, such as soccer and football, expose the cervical spine, or neck, to injury. More than one-third of all high school football players sustain some type of injury. Soccer participants are easy candidates for mild to severe head traumas, neck injuries, cervical spine damage, headache, neck pain, dizziness, irritability, and insomnia. Heading the ball, the act of using the head to redirect the soccer ball, has been linked with cervical injuries in children and adults. The trampoline and gymnastics also present significant risks for spinal cord injuries from unexpected and brute falls or contact with hard surfaces.
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Here’s A Look at Some of the Other Common Injuries By Sport:
Bicycling
Poor posture can greatly increase your risks of a back injury during cycling. When riding a bike, your lower back is constantly flexing sideways and up and down. Upper back injuries can involve the flexing of the neck. And the bumps and jars incurred on the road during cycling can wreak havoc and possible compression injuries to your spine.
Running/Jogging
Running and jogging puts a great deal of stress on your back, since the constant pounding against a hard surface can jar, and possibly compress, structures such as vertebrae, joints, and discs.
Swimming
Swimmers are known to incur lower back injuries. Motions such as the crawl or breaststroke can cause the lumbar region to be hyperextended. If the swimmer is not properly conditioned or warmed up, the hyperextension sometimes doesn’t subside.
Weight Lifting/Body Building
Body builders are at a significant risk for a host of serious back, shoulder, neck, and knee injuries. Resistance training has been known to cause muscle sprains and strains, ligament and tendon injuries, and in some cases, stress fractures (also called spondylolysis). Older people seem to be at higher risk since their bones and discs are more brittle.
Golf
Common injuries incurred during the sport of golf usually involve muscle sprains and strains to the lower back.
Skiing
Skiing involves a great deal of twisting and turning motions, as well as jarring landings, all of which can cause muscle sprains and strains and in some cases, minor spinal fractures.
Tennis
“Tennis elbow” is a layman’s term for pain on the lateral, or outside part of the elbow, on or near the bony protrusion. Tennis elbow is caused when the tendon from the elbow bone tears or is ruptured. It is no surprise that professional tennis players can become inflicted with this with all of the stress and strain they place on the joint during play. In addition, tennis players are in constant motion, and the repeated twisting and trunk rotations can cause injuries. Shoulder injuries and turned ankles and knees also are common. The act of serving the ball also has been shown to hyperextend the lower back, and possibly compress discs.
Chiropractic and Sports Injuries:
Much like any injury, chiropractic approaches the sports injury with a detailed history of the injury, thorough examination, referral for imaging or further consult if necessary, and a detailed outline of the patient’s return from injury goals.
Chiropractic is not only a go to for injury resolution, but studies have shown the effects chiropractic (mainly the adjustment) on increasing sports related performance. Chiropractors are members of most all professional sports team’s medical staff including the New England Patriots.
Chiropractors are also valued members of the Olympic Games medical staff, taking care of the world’s most exceptional athletes.
MCR Chiropractic has been a valued member of the medical staff at the USA Indoor Track and Field Championships as well as the World Figure Skating Championships when held in Boston.