- All right, you have set your new fitness goals,
and you are ready to jump right in
to your brand new intense workout regimen.
Perhaps you've been admiring the bodies
of Michael B. Jordan, Dwayne Johnson,
Serena Williams, Jennifer Lopez
or that doggone Naomi Campbell, and you decided
hey, I can have a body like that!
So now you plan to work out harder
than you ever have before.
Sounds great, but wait a minute!
Before you do too much too fast,
you should be aware of five common sports injuries.
Keep watching.
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I'm Dr. Frita, and thank you so much for watching.
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According to the National Safety Council,
personal exercise accounted for 526,350
sports injuries in 2017.
This was followed by basketball injuries of over 500,085,
then followed by cycling injuries.
So as you do your sports routines, your workout regimens,
it's very important to be in tune with your body
and to be aware of if you have a sports injury
or if you are at risk.
So in today's video,
we are going to discuss 5 most common sports injuries.
Number one, pulled groin
or groin strain.
The groin muscles refer to those muscles in the inner thighs
that attach the pelvis to the inner thighbone.
They are responsible for pulling the legs in together.
Groin injuries can occur in any workout regimen
or physical activity involving rapid side-to-side movement,
certainly in sports like football, baseball,
and definitely if you're doing an intense workout regimen,
crossfit training, and you can mess around
and strain the groin if you're not properly stretched.
The symptoms include a shooting pain in the groin.
They can include bruising, swelling and difficulty walking.
The treatment for a pulled groin, RICE,
rest, ice, compression, elevation.
So you want to rest the groin which is difficult
especially for a lot of athletes,
especially young people who don't want to rest
for as long as they need to rest.
You also need to ice the groin
which consists of taking either an icepack
or a bag of frozen vegetables like frozen peas
and putting it on that area,
but you wanna put a thin towel there
so you don't damage your skin or freeze your skin.
And you ice it for 15 minutes at a time
every one to two hours for up to two days after the injury.
One way to prevent a groin strain or a pulled groin
is to make sure that you stretch properly
and that you work out
and you stabilize those muscles around the groin.
So common sports injury number one, groin strain.
Number two, shin splints
also called medial tibial stress syndrome.
Now athletes get shin splints
when they change their workout routines,
either when they change the intensity
or the frequency or the type of exercise,
which can certainly happen in someone
who's jumping into a whole new workout regimen.
If you have shin splints,
you will have pain in the front of your shins,
usually in the medial portion or toward the center
down in the lower half of the shin,
and that pain will be diffuse.
It'll be all over that shin area.
In order to treat the shin splints, again, RICE,
rest, ice, compression, elevation.
You definitely want to rest
or to change the intensity of your exercise.
You want to ice the area
and give your body a chance to heal.
When you have shin splints, what's actually happening
is that you're having an inflammatory response
in the connective tissue over the bone.
You don't actually have a broken bone or fracture.
Now if you don't rest those shin splints properly,
then you can actually develop a stress fracture.
And you'll know the difference,
because instead of the pain being diffuse,
kind of all over that front center part of the shin,
you actually have a pinpoint area of pain
if you have a stress fracture.
So again, pay attention to your body.
Make sure you see your doctor
if those shin splints aren't getting better,
and you can also take anti-inflammatories
especially if you do not have any kidney disease.
Consult your physician.
So number two common sports injury, shin splints.
Number three, runner's knee or patellar femoral syndrome.
Now this is a very common sports injury,
and if you have a runner's knee, then you'll feel pain
especially in the upper part of your kneecap
or behind your kneecap where your kneecap or patella
meets the lower thighbone or the femur.
And you get runner's knee when you have excessive activity
especially if you have a lot of running, jumping, twisting,
and you can help to prevent a runner's knee
if you really stabilize that knee;
you stabilize the patella.
How do you do that?
Making sure that you have strong muscles around the knee
like in the thighs, and also strong muscles around the hip.
When you have runner's knee,
the pain can be exacerbated by squatting, running,
or even sitting for prolonged periods of times.
Again, to prevent runner's knee,
you want to really make sure
that you stabilize those muscles around the knee.
Number four, rotator cuff injury.
Now we hear the term rotator cuff all the time,
but what exactly is a rotator cuff?
Well, the rotator cuff refers to the four tendons
which cuff the upper arm bone
or the humerus.
Now a tendon is a thick tough band of material
that attaches muscles to bone,
so when it comes to the rotator cuff
you have these four tendons
which are attached to four muscles
which help to stabilize and to rotate the shoulder,
the rotator cuff.
You have the supraspinatus
which is actually the most important of the rotator cuff
and the most vulnerable to injury.
This muscle is responsible for lifting that shoulder joint.
And then you have the teres minor and the infraspinatus
which are responsible for rotating the shoulder outward,
and then you also have the subscapularis which is the muscle
responsible for rotating the shoulder inward.
So together these muscles and tendons help
to rotate that shoulder joint.
They are the rotator cuff.
You are at risk for getting rotator cuff injuries
when you have repetitive movement of that shoulder,
movements that require frequent stretching
of the arms upwards or pushing or lifting.
So you can imagine
that when you're doing a new sports routine
and you have that intensity up,
say you're doing excess weightlifting,
then you can put that shoulder at risk.
Certain athletes like baseball players
who are throwing and using that shoulder a lot
are at risk for rotator cuff injuries.
Also in other sports like basketball, hockey,
anything where you're using that shoulder joint
frequently and intensely can cause a rotator cuff injury.
Now if you just damage the tendon
or cause some bruising or some swelling,
then it's called tendinitis or tendinopathy.
And oftentimes RICE, that rest, ice, compression, elevation
along with taking anti-inflammatories can be enough.
But if you have a tear in the rotator cuff,
that could be a little more serious.
Now in order to diagnose a tear,
you will need to see a physician
like a sports medicine doctor, and an MRI can reveal
if you've had tear in the rotator cuff.
If it's just a small tear or a moderate-sized tear,
then you may still be able to be treated
with conservative management
like the rest, the ice, the anti-inflammatories,
but if it's a large tear or it's causing severe pain,
then you may actually need surgery
to correct the rotator cuff tear.
The symptoms of rotator cuff injury are going to be pain,
pain in the tip of the shoulder
or in the upper outer shoulder.
So beware of the rotator cuff injury
as another common sports injury.
Finally, number five
of the common sports injury, ankle sprain.
Oh, you know what an ankle sprain is!
An ankle sprain occurs when the ankle joint
is twisted or turned too far in one direction or the other
causing a stretching or even a tearing of the ligaments.
So what's a ligament?
A ligament is a broad band of tough tissue
that connects bone to bone.
Now this is different from the tendon
I talked about in the rotator cuff,
because tendons attach bone to muscle.
So in ankle sprain, you have again a stretching or tearing
of the ligaments which attach the bone to bone.
When this occurs, you will get pain in the ankle area.
You can also get swelling, and again that treatment is RICE,
rest, ice, compression and elevation.
Ankle sprains can happen in just about any sport,
anything requiring quick changes in motion and agility
where you can roll that ankle or stretch those ligaments.
Some of the things you can do
to help to prevent ankle sprains,
stabilizing the muscles again surrounding the ankles,
doing proper stretching,
making sure you have good supportive strength,
wearing proper shoes, proper ankle support
depending on the sport that you're doing.
But again, if you're going to be working out
and playing sports, you must be aware
of common sports injury number five, ankle sprain.
Bottom line is that if you're going to be working out
or playing sports, then certainly sports injuries
are something that can happen,
but prevention is key.
Make sure that you consult your physician
before starting an intense workout routine,
and if you're able to, consult a physical trainer,
someone who knows the body and who's able to guide you
on just how far you should be pushed.
A lot of times we set unrealistic goals for ourselves,
too fast, feeling pressure to look
exactly like Hollywood stars with perfect bodies.
Don't do that!
Just make sure you set goals that are realistic for you
and that you pay attention to your body.
Love your body, and do what you need to do
to prevent sports injuries.
If you can't prevent them, which sometimes you can't,
at least if you remember these five common sports injuries,
you will be aware of what the injuries are
when and if they occur,
and you'll know how to best manage the injuries.
I want you to do one more thing
to make sure you are living a healthy, happy life.
I want you to click the link in my description
and download the free PDF,
"10 Healthy Habits for a Better You and a Better Life".
This is a checklist of healthy habits
for you to live your best life.
I use it myself daily.
It helps me; I hope it will help you.
I thank you for watching.
Again, if you have not done so already,
be sure to subscribe to my channel,
hit the notification button,
and follow me on Instagram @dr.frita.
And whatever you do, be sure to do your best
to live your healthiest, happiest life.
I'm Dr. Frita.