How do I take care of myself after a sports injury?
If you get hurt during physical activity, stop playing or exercising immediately. You can cause more harm if you keep going.
Most minor sports injuries get better in a few days with the RICE method:
- Rest: Don’t use the injured area for a few days. If you injured your lower body, consider using crutches so you don’t put your weight on the injured area.
- Ice: Put ice or cold packs on the injured area to reduce pain and swelling (for example, 15 to 20 minutes every four hours).
- Compression: Wrap the injured area in an elastic bandage to provide support and reduce swelling. Make sure it’s snug, but not so tight that it hurts or cuts off blood circulation.
- Elevation: Prop up your injured body part, if possible above the level of your heart, to rest it and reduce swelling. Use a pillow or something similar to keep the injury above your heart.
You also might consider taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen or naproxen.
As you start to feel better, go back to sports and other activities slowly. Make sure you can move the area without pain or stiffness. This will help ensure that you don’t injure yourself again or make the injury worse.
When should I seek medical attention for a sports injury?
Even though many sports injuries can be treated at home, you should seek medical attention for:
- Pain that interferes with movement and doesn’t get better over time.
- Massive swelling that doesn’t slowly decrease.
- Extreme bruising or bleeding.
- Inability to use the injured area.
- Obvious deformity, such as your leg bending in the wrong direction.
What can I ask my healthcare provider about my sports injury?
Here are some questions you can ask your healthcare provider to better understand your specific injury:
- What treatments do I need?
- Should I apply heat, ice or both?
- Should I take pain medications? How much and how often?
- How long will this take to heal?
- Will the injured area heal back to normal?
- When can I participate in sports and other physical activities again?
- Do I need physical therapy?
- What can I do to prevent re-injury?
A note from Cleveland Clinic
Exercise and sports are important to good health, but they often lead to injuries. Many common, minor sports injuries can be treated at home with rest and other strategies. But seek medical attention if pain, swelling, bruising or inability to use the injured area doesn’t get better in a few hours or days.
FAQs
Types of sports injuries
- Ankle sprain – symptoms include pain, swelling and stiffness.
- Bruises – a blow can cause small bleeds into the skin.
- Concussion – mild reversible brain injury from a blow to the head, which may be associated with loss of consciousness. ...
- Cuts and abrasions – are usually caused by falls.
Sports Injury Prevention Tips
- Maintain flexibility. It is extremely important that you do dynamic stretches before starting your activity. ...
- Strengthen your core. ...
- Use proper technique. ...
- Take time to rest. ...
- Ensure proper healing of a previous injury.
Generally, it's common for injury prevention to be broken down into three pillars; training, equipment and regulatory protocols.
What are the classification of sports injuries? ›
Sports injuries are divided into two broad categories, acute and chronic injuries. Acute injuries happen suddenly, such as when a person falls, receives a blow, or twists a joint, while chronic injuries usually result from overuse of one area of the body and develop gradually over time.
What are 5 basic injury types? ›
Five Types of Injuries and Five Causes
- Soft Tissue Injuries. Soft tissue injuries are some of the most common types of injuries. ...
- Broken Bones. Our bones support our bodies and help us move. ...
- Traumatic Brain Injuries. ...
- Spinal Cord Injuries. ...
- Psychological Injuries.
You can treat many minor injuries at home with rest, ice, compression, elevation and over-the-counter pain medications. But some injuries require medical treatment, such as immobilization, physical therapy and surgery.
How are sports injuries classified and managed? ›
Sports injuries can be classified both by the type of tissue injured and the way that they were injured. The type of tissue injured and the nature of this injury determines how the injury is then treated. Soft tissue injuries range from a scratch to a third degree spring or strain.
What is injury prevention and safety? ›
What is Injury Prevention? Injury prevention is an effort comprising risk assessment, hazard analysis, and inspection of the environment (e.g., home, sports facilities, or workplaces) in order to prevent or minimize the severity of physical injuries before they occur.
What are the four main types of injuries? ›
Four common examples of personal injury include back injuries, brain injuries, burn injuries, and paralysis.
What are the 3 classifications of injuries? ›
Did you know that most athletic injuries can be boiled down into three main categories? Acute, Overuse, and Chronic.
Stay hydrated. Drink water to prevent dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke. Stretching exercises can improve the ability of muscles to contract and perform, reducing the risk of injury. Each stretch should start slowly until you reach a point of muscle tension. Stretching should not be painful.
What are the 3 types of physical injury? ›
Physical injuries include those caused by mechanical trauma, heat and cold, electrical discharges, changes in pressure, and radiation. Mechanical trauma is an injury to any portion of the body from a blow, crush, cut, or penetrating wound.
How to prevent an injury? ›
Here are 10 sports injury prevention tips from our sports medicine team to help you play safe this fall:
- Don't Forget to Warm Up and Cool Down. ...
- Stretch Regularly. ...
- Use the Right Protective Equipment. ...
- Stay Hydrated. ...
- Don't Slack on Strength Training. ...
- Avoid Overdoing It. ...
- Use Proper Form. ...
- Take Care of Your Joints.
There are several different types of sport injuries, such as fractures, sprains, strains, dislocations, tendinitis, and bursitis. Sports injuries may be acute, which happen suddenly, or chronic, which happen from overuse over time. Sports injuries may be treated by emergency physician and primary care providers.
What are the six most common sports related injuries? ›
The 6 Most Common Sports Injuries
- Ankle Sprain & Other Sprains. Sprains are a risk during any type of sport. ...
- Knee Injuries. ...
- Muscle Strains. ...
- Shoulder Injuries. ...
- Shin Splints. ...
- Fractures.
Top 10 Most Common Sports Injuries
- Patellofemoral Syndrome. The majority of sports injuries involve the lower body, particularly knee injuries.
- Shoulder Injury. ...
- Tennis or Golf Elbow. ...
- Hamstring Strain. ...
- Sciatica. ...
- Shin Splints. ...
- Groin Pull. ...
- Concussion. ...
This broad category includes treatments such as stem cell therapy, platelet rich plasma (PRP) therapy, prolotherapy, certain cartilage regeneration procedures, and more. Regenerative medicine involves injecting a therapeutic solution into damaged tissue that will not adequately heal on its own.
What are the 4 kinds of physical injuries? ›
Dislocations. Electrical injuries. Fractures (broken bones) Sprains and strains.
What are the four steps used to treat sports injury? ›
Use the R-I-C-E method to relieve pain and inflammation and to speed healing:
- Rest. Limit activities that involve using the injured area for at least a day or two. ...
- Ice. Apply an ice pack to the injured area for 20 minutes at a time, four to eight times a day. ...
- Compression. ...
- Elevation.
