Your friends at MainStreet Family Care are sharing details on common sports injuries—their causes, best treatment, and top tips to prevent those painful injuries!  

You don’t have to be an Olympic athlete to have a sports injury. Healthcare providers define sports injuries as damage to a body part during physical activity. Your activity could be a sport, such as basketball, football, golf, running, soccer, or tennis. Or it could be a hobby or work-related movement, like assembly line work, construction, gardening, painting, or playing guitar.

Sports injuries generally cause damage to one or more parts of your musculoskeletal system, which includes:

  • Bones
  • Cartilage
  • Ligaments
  • Muscles
  • Tendons

The components of the musculoskeletal system work together to provide your body with stability and strength for movement.

Common Sports Injuries

Sports injuries can be divided into two broad categories: acute and chronic. Let’s look at some of the most common injuries in each category.

Acute Sports Injuries

Acute injuries are those that occur suddenly. Common acute sports injuries include:

Broken bones are usually caused by a traumatic injury such as a fall or a forceful strike on a part of your body. Common broken bone injuries include a broken arm when bracing yourself during a fall or a broken collarbone during contact sports such as football.

Dislocations occur when two bones that form a joint are separated and out of their joint or socket. Most dislocations occur from contact sports or falls. Common joints that can be dislocated include your elbow, finger, kneecap, and shoulder.

Sprains occur when you overstretch, tear, or twist a ligament around a joint. The most common sprains include ankles, knees, and wrists.

Strains occur when you overstretch, tear, or twist a muscle or tendon. Common strains include a back strain from lifting heavy items with poor body mechanics and hamstring (thigh muscle) strains from running without properly stretching or warming up.

Chronic Sports Injuries

Injuries that occur over time from long-standing problems, overuse, or repetitive strain of the same body area are chronic sports injuries. Common chronic sports injuries include:

Arthritis can develop in joints with recurrent joint injuries. Repeated injuries cause the cartilage in the joint to deteriorate, leading to pain from bones rubbing together once the cushioning from the cartilage is gone.

Shin splints cause pain along the shinbone. They are most common in runners and are usually caused by overuse, running on hard surfaces, or wearing shoes without proper support.

Stress fractures are technically broken bones. They are microfractures in your bones caused over time by repetitive stress on the bones. The most common stress fractures are found in the feet and legs of runners.

Tendonitis is an overuse injury in which tendons become inflamed from repetitive motion. It is painful and can lead to decreased range of motion.

  • Rotator cuff tendonitis is a common injury caused by repetitive motions involving raising your arms above your head, like lifting, pushing, reaching, throwing, and washing windows.
  • Tennis elbow is another common sports injury caused by repetitive activities that involve gripping with your forearm and twisting your wrist, such as tennis, pickleball, and other racket sports. It can also develop from activities like cutting food, painting, sewing, typing, using a computer mouse, or using plumbing tools.

Do you have a work-related sports injury? MainStreet Family Care Occupational Health Services can help you with your worker’s compensation exam! Ask your employer if MainStreet Family Care is an approved provider.

Treating Sports Injuries

Most minor sports injuries can be treated at home. More severe injuries and minor injuries that do not respond to home treatment require medical attention.

Home Treatment

Most minor sports injuries, like shin splints, sprains and strains, can be safely treated at home. During the first 24 to 48 hours, you should use the RICE method, which stands for rest, ice, compression, and elevation. Try this method to promote healing and relieve inflammation and pain.

Rest, Ice, Compress, and Elevate your injury.

We recommend over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications, such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen, to further reduce pain and swelling.

If your pain and swelling do not improve or worsen after home treatment, you may need medical treatment. MainStreet Family Care urgent care services can help you heal and feel better Fast! Register online for a same-day appointment or see us in our walk-in clinic.

Medical Treatment

When to Seek Emergent Care

Injuries such as broken bones, especially if the bone is exposed, need to be treated right away in an emergency room. Immediate medical attention is also indicated if you have a sports injury accompanied by any of the following:

  • An obvious deformity in the injured area.
  • Chills or fever.
  • Inability to bear weight after 24 to 48 hours or instability of a joint.
  • Numbness or tingling around your injury.
  • Pain or swelling that does not improve after home treatment or worsens.

When to Seek Urgent Care

Most other sports injuries can be treated in clinics and urgent care. When you seek medical treatment for a sports injury, your healthcare provider will ask you several questions:

  • How did the injury occur?
  • When did the injury occur?
  • Did you hear or feel a “pop” at the time of the injury?
  • Do you hear or feel a “crunching” sound when you use the injured area?
  • Have you injured this area before?
  • Has your injury responded to home treatment?
  • Do you have any numbness or tingling around the injured area?

Your healthcare provider will examine your injured area for:

  • Deformity
  • Intact pulses and sensations in the injured area
  • Range of motion
  • Stability of any joints involved

X-rays may be recommended to determine if you have any broken bones. Your healthcare provider may also recommend a computed tomography (CT) scan or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate the extent of damage to your bones, cartilage, ligaments, muscles, or tendons.

Your healthcare provider may recommend adding a “P,” which stands for protection, to the “RICE” method for a “PRICE” protocol. For example, protection for your sports injury may include:

  • Brace, cast, or splint to immobilize the injured area
  • Crutches to keep weight off your injured ankle, foot, or knee
  • Sling to immobilize and stabilize your injured arm, elbow, or shoulder

As you recover, your healthcare provider may recommend physical therapy or similar rehabilitation programs as a treatment option. A physical therapist can teach you strengthening exercises to help prevent recurring sports injuries.

If your sports injury requires surgery, your healthcare provider will refer you to an orthopedic surgeon or sports medicine specialist. Surgery is rarely needed but may be necessary for broken bones, sprains and strains with complete ligament and tendon tears, or chronic injuries.

Preventing Sports Injuries

Sports injuries may be prevented by reducing your risk factors. Try these top ten tips:

  • Ease back in – Start a new exercise regimen or sport slowly and build up your activity over time. After an injury, it is essential to fully recover and ease back into your activity.
  • Gear up – Wear the proper gear for your physical activities, such as protective equipment for your sport and sturdy shoes to support you.
  • Get strong – Regular stability and strengthening exercises can help prevent sports injuries.
  • Good form – Sports injuries may occur from using poor form. Focus on good body mechanics to prevent injury.
  • Healthy weight – Being overweight places extra stress on your bones, ligaments, muscles, and tendons, increasing your risk of sports injuries.
  • Mix it up – Many chronic sports injuries result from playing the same sport year-round. Try alternating your activities to use all your muscle groups and prevent overuse injury of one body part.
  • Rest – Make sure you are well-rested before physical activity. Working with a tired body is a risk factor for sports injuries.
  • Train smart – Listen to your body for signs of fatigue or pain to prevent overtraining.
  • Warm up – Try light stretches to warm up your ligaments, muscles, and tendons before physical activity.
  • Watch out – Be aware of your surroundings and watch out for faulty equipment and slippery or uneven surfaces that could lead to a fall or injury.

Turn to MainStreet Family Care

Is your sports injury not responding to home treatment? MainStreet Family Care urgent care services can help!

Register online to visit one of our clinics near you today. You can wait from the convenience of your home or car until we’re ready to see you. We’ll text you when it’s time to head to the clinic.

We also accept walk-ins! However, please be aware that walk-ins join the same queue as those who register online and may experience longer in-clinic wait times.