Injuries during exercise, how to avoid, recover and more

Specifically talking about body injuries during physical activity, it means a harm or damage that any structure suffers due to an agent or force, which may have been produced by accident (most of the time) or because of an inadequate practice (e.g bad movement, wrong posture, etc.).

Spinal loading may produce height loss. Weight training and running are exercises that produce spinal loading

Sometimes the harm is not so bad and will need little intervention, or it can disable a person physically or become life threatening. Fortunately most of the ocassions injuries (even accidental) can be prevented with a good practice and self conciousness of ourselves during performance.

There are many types of damage:

Minor abrasion, bruises, wounds, burns, fractures, joint dislocations, concussions, sprain of ligaments, shock, etc.Certainly, for all types of damage, an inflammatory process is present that needs to be controlled (our diet may help).

How understanding position, balance and training can be a good preventive measure

The American College of Sports Medicine published in 2009 an investigation of Markus Hubscher and other colaborators. They reviewed the effectiveness of the appreciation of position and balance and neuromuscular training.

This authors revealed that multi-intervention training was effective in reducing the risk of injuries in the lower limb, the knee and ankle sprain. When balance training itself, only helps on reducing sprains of the ankle. Check this if you perform any pivoting sport.

Injuries, when they are present

Once the problem is present, many things can happen. If it doesn't seem to be so bad, we even try to take care of it.

Here is an example. The American College of Sports Medicine Journal in 2009, published: The effects of Ibuprofen Topical Gel in Muscle Soreness (common symptom after novel exercise).

It is an often practice to use this kind of over the counter (OTC) medication to relieve muscle pain. Well, wouldn't you expect an improvement? See what they found:

In this study, the topical application of Ibuprofen was not an effective treatment for muscle soreness following an unaccustomed gym exercise. Also, there was no sex difference in the soreness response.

Moral of a fable: Not all you see in TV or other media is a fact. That's why it is always important to get professional recommendation in order to avoid further damage. Don't you agree?

Excessive exercise affects bone mass?

When bone mass is reduced in the body, the susceptibility for bone damage is higher, for example, for fractures. Moderate physical activity and enough calcium will protect us from bone loss.

A note for awareness. Many athletes sometimes restrict their energy intakes in order to meet the weight guidelines. If we sum up calcium intakes below recommendations, there is a potential for developing osteoporosis and other conditions.

So the comment is: If you keep up to certain exercise, consider your nutrition and supplementation according to your needs. This are also important components for a healthy lifestyle. A strong body will always be prepared for any inconvenience and recovers easily from many conditions

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