“Sports Injuries” are classified as such because at the time of the injury the person involved happened to be engaged in a sporting or exercise activity.  An ankle sprain playing rugby or from loosing ones footing whilst walking are however anatomically and pathologically the same and will respond in the same way to treatment. The likely difference between the two is that the rugby player needs to be rehabilitated to a higher level of conditioning again to cope with the demands of the sport but for each of these examples this conditioning process is essentially the same.

When treating any injury it is important to consider all aspects of that person’s life style and not just those things that seem relevant to a sporting context. The person who hurt his back whilst playing football may well have been developing a weak back for a while from sitting badly at his desk, for example. The “sports injury” was really just the straw that broke the camel’s back. The more important thing to rehabilitate is that persons overall posture and the ergonomics of their work station at the office.

Most sports injuries do not happen with a single traumatic event. They are overuse injuries where people are not able to balance what essentially is a relatively sedentary background to most days with intense bursts of activity 3 evenings a week in the gym or on a sports ground at the weekend.  The fact that most sports injuries are in the lower limb probably just reflects the fact that most sports involve running.  Running injuries are particularly common.

Of course some sports injuries are traumatic and out of our control.  Even here though we should prepare ourselves fully for the types of sports where perhaps common sense and experience tells us that injury is more likely and make sure we have adequate levels or fitness, body awareness (proprioception) and strength and conditioning to minimise the chances of injury should something not go according to plan.

It is also important that whatever we do, especially when starting exercise programmes that we pace ourselves and not try to increase the volume and intensity of activity too quickly. The cardiovascular system becomes conditioned relatively quickly compared to the skeletal system and as such we are quickly able to push ourselves harder than our joints and ligaments can cope with and tissues start to break down.