Dear youngster, are you a Christiano Ronaldo, Messi or Neymar fan? I am sure you should be one of those and will be juggling and dribbling the ball on the ground. Have you ever thought how your heroes managed to play for long periods avoiding injuries? The answer is, for being a good sports person, you should learn to avoid injuries while playing by proper warm-up exercises and training.
Sports injuries including sprains, strains and fractures are alarmingly increasing in recent years. The mounting passion for contact games, with inadequate training and warm-up may be cited as the reason for this. Lack of adequate facilities in playgrounds and lack of proper outfits while playing have a major contribution to these injuries.
How will you learn to play avoiding injuries? For that you should recall what you have studied in your textbooks. We walk, run or jump with the help our muscles, ligaments, bone and joints. As your brain gives order to these parts, they should be kept ready to perform, or else you will land on a wrong foot or fall down and get injured. Thus conditioning of your reflexes, by warm-up exercises is the key for success of any sportsperson.
Skipping, jogging and stretching exercises are easy ways to improve your bone quality, muscle strength and ligament flexibility. A total of 100 skips a day, 3 rounds of jogging on the ground, 15 minutes of stretching of all the joints in your body will keep you fit and fine while you play. Doing yoga, meditation and kalari will also help you to finetune your body and mind to help work together while playing.
Have you ever thought how Neymar came back with renewed vigour after he got injured in the spine? Injuries are sometimes inevitable and are part of every game. Taking a few days away from the game, giving adequate rest, treatment and rehabilitation will bring you back into the game.
Injuries heal with proper rest and adequate treatment. When unattended or inadequately treated, it heals in compromised manner and will be a weak area in your body for long period. Injured ligaments and bone should be given sufficient time to heal. Once they have healed they should be strengthened by isometric and isotonic exercises. Before engaging in active sports, make sure your bone, joints and ligaments are ready to perform. Remember, a small neglect will cost you your confidence while playing and spoil your performance as a sportsman!!!
(The author is consultant orthopedic surgeon, VKM Hospital, Tripunithura)
