Top tips for preventing sports injuries

Many sports injuries occur because people don’t know how to prevent them. Here are some tips to help prevent injuries:

  1. Always wear the correct gear. Players should always wear appropriate and properly fitted protective sports gear such as pads (neck, shoulder, elbow, chest, knee, shin), helmets, mouthpieces, face guards, protective cups, and/or eye wear.
  2. Increase muscle strength.
  3. Increase flexibility. Stretch!
  4. Use the proper technique.
  5. Take rests.
  6. Follow the rules of your sport and play safe.
  7. Stop the activity if there is pain.
  8. Keep hydrated.

Remember if you do get injured Vitality Therapy offers sports massage to help you recover.

 

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    We all wonder why after an injury or issue has healed and after several weeks of feeling pretty good, bang it flares up again, why? Last week I explained so factors influencing why this happens, now I want to explore the physiological aspects. The Physiological Law of Facilitation (the path of least resistance) The law explains why old injuries flare up under stress. When an impulse has passed once through a certain set of neurons in your brain to the exclusion of others, it will tend to take the same course on a future occasion, and each time it does, the resistance will become less. An analogy of this would be the image of rain on a dirt hill each time it rains the pathway becomes more entrenched, larger, and more intricate spreading out to nearby pathways.  So once a nerve learns a pain pattern it tends to repeat it even in the absence of the injury. So the effects of stress to your mind and body can be a trigger for this response to kick in. But wait, there is good news! The Law of Facilitation can be maneuvered to help a massage therapist make the benefits of their treatment last longer. You may be wandering how can this be?  In massage, patterns of imbalance which result from trauma, or from habitually stressful patterns like poor posture can be addressed.  So your body should adapt to changes taking place in the musculoskeletal system and create new pathways. The body likes sameness, which produces habitual patterns. When a pattern is established, it does not take as much stimulation to activate the response.

  • How to prevent gallstones

    Although no definite preventive technique for gallstone development has been discovered yet, research shows that there are ways people can lower their risk for these stones.

    Refrain From Taking These Medications

    If you are taking any of these medications, remember that the following can increase your risk for gallstones:
    Cholesterol-lowering drugs: Medicines like gemfibrozil (Lopid) and fenofibrate (Tricor) can increase your gallstone risk. Although they may decrease your blood cholesterol levels, these medicines can also increase the amount of cholesterol released in bile. Hormone therapy: HRT is a general term referring to the administration of estrogen or a combination of estrogen/progestin therapy. Increased estrogen levels can cause the body to produce more cholesterol and raise the levels of it in bile. As such, if you are a woman who is undergoing HRT or is taking high-dose birth control pills, talk to your doctor about your gallstone risk and ask if there are other hormone-related medications that are better for you.

    A Healthy Lifestyle Can Lower Your Gallstone Risk

    Decreasing your risk for gallstones begins with a healthy lifestyle, specifically by following these habits:
    Maintaining a healthy weight: People who are overweight or obese have a higher risk of gallstones. Boost your diet with these foods:
    • Unlimited amounts of fresh, organic and vegetables, especially fiber-rich options (just make sure to introduce these foods slowly into your diet, since they can prompt digestive discomfort, especially in those who have had gallbladder surgery).
    • Moderate quantities of high-quality protein from meat ideally organic.
    • High portions of healthy fats from sources like avocados, coconut oil, organic butter, pastured egg yolks and raw nuts like macadamias, pecans and pine nuts.
    The following common practices can also raise your gallstone risk, so it's best to avoid them:
    • Skipping meals or fasting for long periods of time. As much as possible, try to stick to your usual mealtimes.
    • Following diets that promote rapid weight loss.  By rapid I mean aiming to lose more than 1 to 2 pounds, or 0.5 to 1 kilogram, per week.
    • Exercising regularly: Research shows that moderate physical activity can help with increasing the body’s levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) or “good” cholesterol.
    References

  • What causes my muscles to knot?

    What are knots:

    • Muscle knots are points within a muscle where contracted fibers are unable to relax.
    • The dictionary is: “highly irritable localized spots of exquisite tenderness in a nodule in palpable taunt bands of muscle tissue.”
    • The medical term for muscle knots is myofascial trigger points.
    Knots are thought to be caused by the building up of protein after the release of lactic acid. Knots cause pain in two ways:
    • Active An active trigger point or knot is one that actively refers pain either locally or via nerve pathways to another location in the body.  Active trigger points are the one that clients are aware of and cause them to book to see a masseur.
    • Latent A latent trigger point is one that isn’t painful until pressure is applied to it.  This is when clients come to me and they find that during the massage they feel pain that they hadn’t felt before the treatment.
    How can I prevent knots? Occasional knots are inevitable, but if you get a lot of them it is worth considering the following
    • Your posture
    • Your potassium and calcium levels as both help to prevent knots
    • Being dehydrated doesn’t help
    • Your posture
    • Stretching may help release knots
    How can I release knots? If you didn’t manage to prevent knots you then need to consider how to release them.
    • To self-treat a muscular knot put a tennis ball in a sock (it makes it easier to hold on to the ball), simply place the tennis ball in the sock against either a wall or the floor and then press the part of your body with the knot on to it and move your body up and down.
    • As an alternative, you could apply a deep, stroking massage directly to the muscle knot.
    • The alternative is to visit a masseur.