By: Patricia Davila Mamely

One of the most common causes for the abandonment of a sport is the repeated injuries, which end up in despairing the athlete. For this reason, it is important to consider the main factors on which we can rely to avoid injuries and to be able to perform our sport or physical activity in a healthy and maintained way according to experts with a  diploma in sports physiotherapy.

The adequate physical preparation, the better technique, the corporal conscience, and the good elastic capacity of the muscles are some of the essential elements to bear in mind at the time of realizing exercise, in this article we describe in detail each one of them.

1. Physical Preparation

It is essential to have a good cardio-respiratory and muscular capacity because if one or the other fails, the whole sports practice will be compromised since the technical gesture will be quickly distorted and our concentration will be diminished. It is therefore very important to set goals for which we are prepared and take the necessary time to ensure our proper physical condition.

2. Mechanical balance

The mechanical balance is the correct state of the biomechanical elements involved in the sporting gesture these elements must have a high degree of coordination between them and an adequate adaptation between strength resistance and elastic capacity of the tissues that perform it.

3. Stretching

The stretching capacity of the muscles marks the range of articular mobility of a joint, and its capacity for movement in different ranges. In addition, a static muscle will be more capable of performing strength and resisting potentially injurious loads and forces, which is why specific stretching work, especially in the muscles that tend to shorten due to their structure, is one of the main factors to be considered.

4. Warming-up

A good previous state of the joints and muscles before the sports practice can be the key to avoiding injuries, not only because we will have the muscles with a greater blood supply, pulses and cardiovascular functioning adapted to the activity to which we have but also, it is a basic tool for our mental state and concentration directed to that activity.

5. Proprioception work

Proprioception is the ability of our body to move away and relate to the environment, this type of exercise gives our body a lot of stimuli to be able to react to different eventualities of sport either by the sport itself, by the opposite, or the terrain in which we practice.

6. Resting between efforts

One of the most common causes of injury processes is the lack of adequate rest which, in addition to facilitating overtraining, can lead to fatigue that compromises the resistance capacity of the tissues.

7. Hydration and nutrition

Both good nutrition and good hydration have an essential importance in sports practice, both during practice, which especially in endurance sports will determine our performance, and during the training period, which will enable or hinder an optimal state of the body.

8. Post-sport relaxation

This important factor must be taken into account because the body needs to be facilitated so that it can optimize its recovery processes that will be essential for the next competition or training, and if they are not adequate, can end up having muscles and joints in a state of exhaustion and with an accumulation of waste substances not eliminated, which can create adhesions between muscle septa and mechanical alterations.

9. Psycho-emotional Balance

We all realize how important it is to have our heads in what we are doing, in sport it is basic since to be performing an activity that requires great coordination and strength without an adequate psycho-emotional state, are a determining factor in many injuries and the final result of the competition.

10. Care of a good physiotherapist

A good physiotherapist can be our best ally for our sport, not only when we have an injury, but as a counsellor who will give us a lot of information to avoid these injuries.

Conclusion

It is important to follow the advice mentioned above. The physical training that is done in sports, is intended not only to avoid injuries but also to achieve goals based on competitions with other athletes. That is why complete exercises should be included in which work is done to maintain performance and thus avoid tissue damage that is so common when playing sports.