Being active is a vital part of leading a healthy lifestyle. However, any sporting activity can lead to injury, especially among weekend warriors who spend the entire week behind a desk. 

Although injuries in contact sports are expected, many injuries also occur in non contact sports where many people do not anticipate the risk of injury. Whether through repetitive use or unexpected impact, the prevalence and severity of injuries can be limited through improved training or the incorporation of other training modalities. Once an injury has occurred, many treatment options are available, many of which will help limit the likelihood of the injury reoccurring. 

Although contact sports can result in injuries that are difficult to prevent through training, greater flexibility and strengthening of muscles can help limit the likelihood of such injuries as well. 

Being more flexible 

One of the root causes of sports injuries is a lack of flexibility. 

Many people sit at a desk all day, where everything is at 90 degrees such as knees and hips. And then you go do these sports where everything is open. Just reverse what you’ve been doing all day - stretch out your shoulders, stretch out your hip flexors the opposite way of being hunched over. 

Stretching tight muscles will lessen the chance of repetitive injuries by allowing the body to move more smoothly.  

Specific sports and injury 

Certain sports can also cause asymmetrical muscle development, especially racquet sports, softball or golf. 

These sports can cause imbalance in the body such as huge (back muscles) on the one side while the other side is just flat. In this case you should incorporate training that will strengthen the muscles on the weak side in order to restore balance. 

Alignment is very important throughout the body, but in few placed can the result of bad alignment be seen as clearly as in the knees. Knee injuries can be a result of not wearing the correct shoes and having a specialist look at your feet and see what kind of shoes you need can make all the difference. 

Sport specific training 

As important as incorporating additional training modalities in sport can be, doing sport specific training can also make a big difference to sports injuries. 

A lot of sports have lateral motion, but many people don’t train for that but instead train forwards and backwards, which is all in one plane, whereas injuries usually come from sudden changes of motion side to side, so when training you should incorporate motion for the sport you do. Training for the specific stresses a sport like football can place on the body will reduce the likelihood of such injuries occurring during games. 

There is no doubt however that injuries happen in sports, in which case you might need help to get fitness and mobility back with a combination of therapies such as physiotherapy and chiropractic.