Sports Injuries
Common reasons for sports injuries are:
- Missing or insufficient warming up
- Poor training condition
- Exceedance of own load limits
- Missing breaks between training sessions and during the training itself
- Incorrect execution of motion sequences
- Missing protective pads, e.g. for Inline skating
- Wrong sport shoes, for example when jogging; worn out sports shoes often do not give the foot sufficient support.
- Buckling, slipping
- third-party negligence (e.g. foul play in football)
Strain
In the case of a strain, a rapid, jerky movement leads to an overstretching of the muscle fibers. Typical symptoms of a strain are suddenly shooting pain and an immediate restriction of mobility. Even the tightening of the affected muscles can cause discomfort if the muscles are pulled. In most cases, this is accompanied by increased muscle tension, which can also be accompanied by muscle cramps. In contrast to many other sports injuries, there is only a slight swelling and also the bruising is not very pronounced. Thigh strain and calf strain are particularly common forms of strain.
An overview of the symptoms of strain:
- Pain during strain
- Limitation of mobility
- Complaints at muscular tension
- Increased muscular tension
Important: If the symptoms are not observed and there is no protection, muscle fibre tearing may occur.
Contusion
A contusion leads to bruising of the subcutaneous fatty tissue and the muscular system. Blood flows from the injured vessels into the tissue. Typical signs of contusions are pain, bruising and swelling. The mobility is clearly limited by the complaints. A bruise can affect muscles, joints or bones. Frequent contusions during sports are, for example, knee contusions, shoulder contusions and contusions of the ankle joint.
An overview of the symptoms of bruising:
- Pain
- Hematoma (bruise)
- Swelling
Sprain
Sprains are caused by a sudden and violent overstretching of ligaments and tendons. If, for example, a hand or foot is sprained, it usually results in swelling, bruising and pressure pain. Mobility is also often no longer fully given.
An overview of the spain symptoms:
- Swelling
- Hematoma (bruise)
- Pressure pain
- Limited mobility
Diagnosis of sports injuries
If you want to be on the safe side in the event of a sports injury, you should consult a doctor (orthopaedist) for an exact diagnosis. The doctor can often tell from the symptoms whether it is a bruise or a strain, for example.
Bruise, sprain, strain?
The doctor determines the exact cause of the complaints. The diagnosis of a sports injury is based on comprehensive information provided by the doctor about the injury. This means: How did the injury occur? What are the symptoms? This is followed by a clinical examination. Based on the symptoms and various function tests, the doctor can usually recognize quite quickly what type of sports injury it is.
Imaging procedures to confirm the diagnosis
Certain imaging methods can be used to confirm a suspected diagnosis:
Treatment of sports injuries
Those who act early and purposefully in the case of a sports injury can have a positive influence on the healing process. In addition to protecting and cooling the affected body part, the pain and inflammation inhibition plays an important role. In the case of an acute situation, the following applies to every injury: act according to the so-called RICE rule (rest, ice, compression, elevation). A rule of thumb that every athlete should keep in mind in order to be able to act as quickly as possible on muscle and joint injuries and thus keep the damage as low as possible.
What to do in case of bruises, strains or sprains?
As a general rule, anyone who notices an injury should stop physical activity immediately! It is better to take a break (rest) and immobilize the injured body part!
Applying ice (cryotherapy) helps to relieve the pain due to the cold temperature (below 0 degrees). Cryotherapy is used for spinal and joint complaints, strains and bruises and also for tendosynovitis / bursitis. Compression with the help of a firm bandage can prevent rapid swelling and spreading of the bleeding. Ideally you should also use a pain gel as soon as possible (for example with Doc pain gel or Enelbin paste - this is always applied cold). If you now elevate the affected body part, the blood supply is reduced and the fluid that has escaped into the tissue can be wicked away more quickly. In this way the swelling can be reduced.