When you play sports, it is important to do what you can to protect yourself. That is why teams require plenty of safety equipment. However, you also want to make sure you’re protecting yourself even when you’re just getting in a good workout.
Accidents can happen, and if you don’t do the proper stretches and wear the proper gear, you could end up off the court or down from your normal fitness routine while you recover. For instance, while doing weight lifting, you might injure your wrist ligaments and tendons, sprain your shoulder or perhaps end up with a broken wrist, in which case, you may have to look for a professional medic and maybe opt for a surgery consult service to see a hand surgeon. Hence, instead of risking injury, you can perform routine warmup that can reduce the chances of encountering severe physical issues. Additionally, here are some things that you can do to play and exercise safely.
Protecting Your Eyes
When you play sports, especially, it’s important to wear eye protection. Your eyes have enough strain on a daily basis, as it is, and as you get older they will already start to degrade. Why allow things to happen to them to mess with your vision before it’s time?
You would wear eye protection if you were welding? It’s just as important to protect your eyes if you’re in a situation where something could get into your eyes, like downhill skiing. Your eyes are the only part of your head that needs protection.
Protecting Your Head
Many sports put you at risk for head injuries. Even basketball players are at risk of head trauma, but they tend to only use a mouth guard (helmets would get in the way of the sport). In full contact sports, like football, head protection is extremely important to protect from concussions and even neck injuries.
Stretching Your Muscles
Before you hit the court or the field, and before you go for a run or even do yoga, you need to stretch. Stretching helps your muscles warm up, which can help prevent strains and sprains. You’ll know it if you skip a stretch and hit the streets for a run. You’ll get tight, and it will definitely hurt more the next day!
Protecting Your Legs. Knees And Feet
Stretching will help protect these body parts some, but you may need to do a little bit more if you want to ensure that you don’t end up with injuries. That means doing a little bit more than stretching. You also want to wear protective gear.
Depending on your sport you may want to wear knee pads. Wearing the right shoes for the right sport or fitness routine is also important. You may even want to consider compression gear, like socks, to help keep your feet (and other body parts) safe and free of injury (and free of blisters).
Protection is important. If you don’t want to miss a week’s worth of working out you want to make sure you follow these tips. If you don’t want major injuries when you’re playing sports, you need to make sure to always use the protection gear required for that sport.