In part one of our blog series, we looked at a handful of things you can do this summer to help avoid sports injuries. Wrapping things up in part two, are a few more helpful tips of things that you can do to avoid injuring yourself this summer while playing your favorite sport.
Ozark Holistic Center aims to provide the greater Fayetteville area with the best in alternative medicine and chiropractic care. To learn more or to make an appointment, contact us today!
Follow The Rules of the Game
With every sport, rules are set in place for a variety of reasons. Without rules, of course, there would be no order and thusly, no way to follow the game or track the progress of either team. Rules are also set in place, however, to keep all of the game’s participants safe. Not following the rules can result in a variety of unexpected outcomes, injury being among them. Think about the many times that you witnessed someone else being injured as a result of either them or another player going against the rules of the game. Not following the rules can result in you or your team being penalized as well. Following the rules comes with a variety of benefits, and doing so can help you avoid having a sports injury.
It doesn’t have to be the rules of a specific sport either. Maybe it is something you know you shouldn’t do because of the inherent danger. Take hiking for example. The common phrase is to “stay on the trail.” Yet because we think we are capable we veer off the path. Many of have been severely injured because they have not followed this one simple rule.
Adequate Rest and Nutrition is Essential
As important as making sure that you’re in great shape to play the game is making sure that you’re receiving adequate rest each night. Our bodies can only take so much physical activity, and in order for us to truly be able to perform at our best and avoid injury, we need to be well rested.
Whether if it’s before playing a big game or simply before practice, being well rested means more than us not being tired. When we haven’t gotten a good night’s rest, we have a tendency to not be as alert or aware than if we were well rested, and its this lack of awareness that can very easily cause us to endure a sports injury. From being too lethargic to run, to simply not having our wits about us, attempting to do any sort of physical activity while not well rested can easily lead to us being injured, leading us to not be able to partake in the sport that we love so much.
Along with adequate rest we need the proper nutrition that fuels our bodies. Relying on junk food doesn’t cut it, but neither does fad diets or all the too common “carb loading.” At some point, all of these things will fail us. We need to eat plenty of whole foods from good sources such as local, organic grass-fed beef or organic vegetables from your garden. In addition to this, get plenty of clean, filtered water. This will ensure your body is in prime health.
Don’t Over-Train
While we mentioned in our previous blog that it’s incredibly important to be adequately prepared to play our sport of choice, there is such a thing as over-training. Over-training goes hand in hand with getting adequate amounts of rest, and pushing ourselves beyond our limit of what our bodies can handle can lead to us either injuring ourselves while training or during a game. It’s important to know your limit, and if you have a specific goal that you want to reach, working towards it in a natural and gradual way will help you achieve it without the risk of injury. Yes we are wonderfully designed and for that matter we are designed to move. But like anything this takes time.
Make An Appointment with Us Today!
Those are a few more ways that you can avoid sports injuries this summer. At Ozark Holistic Center, we are proud to serve patients in the greater Fayetteville area with a variety of natural and holistic healing options, from chiropractic care to sports injuries and beyond. Contact us today to make an appointment!
