Play These Sports and You’re More Likely to Get Hurt

Sports have many physical and psychological benefits, and they are excellent for your overall health. However, sports injuries are very common, particularly if you push yourself beyond your current physical fitness level or practice incorrect form.

Additionally, some sports tend to be more dangerous than others. A sports injury can keep you out of the game and potentially even out of work. Further, leaving an acute injury untreated can lead to chronic, long-term problems. Chiropractic care for sports injuries can greatly speed your recovery, getting you back in the game faster and nipping injuries in the bud before they become chronic.

Here are the most injurious sports, as ranked by the number of injuries treated in emergency rooms annually nationwide.

Basketball

Basketball is the number one most injurious sport in the U.S., causing over 500,000 emergency room visits annually. Quite simply, jumping for shots, rushing for rebounds, and blocking opponents makes basketball a fast-paced game that’s prone to injuries.

The most common basketball injuries are ankle sprains, jammed fingers, knee injuries, deep thigh bruising, foot fractures, and facial cuts. A chiropractor can speed recovery from sprained ankle injuries by helping to restore the range of motion after the injury. This can also help to prevent chronic problems such as weak ankle joints or lower back pain.

Bicycling

Bicycling comes in second place, leading to just under 500,000 emergency room visits annually. Common cycling injuries include neck and back strains and pain, hip misalignment, handlebar neuropathies, head trauma, fractures, dislocations, and sprains.

Any head trauma or acute back injuries are considered to be a medical emergency, and should be checked out by emergency medical providers immediately. Once your immediate medical needs are tended to, your chiropractor can help you rehabilitate from cycling injuries through a variety of techniques including intersegmental traction, chiropractic manipulative therapy, and kinesio taping.

Football

Football is a highly injurious sport, leading to nearly 420,000 emergency room visits annually, and nearly 1.5 million injuries overall each year. Common football injuries include sprains and strains, contusions, fractures, concussions, and dislocations.

Football injuries often keep players benched, which can be very problematic for the team as a whole. Return to play criteria include restoration to full range of motion, normal strength, neurological evaluation, lack of joint pain and swelling, ability to run and sustain impact without pain, and no intake of pain medication.

A chiropractor can help you get back to the gridiron faster through treatments such as sports massage, chiropractic adjustment, electric stim therapy, hydromassage, intersegmental traction, kinesio taping, sport massage, and ultrasound.

Soccer

Soccer is a fast-paced, high-impact game, making injuries very common. Soccer causes nearly 200,000 emergency room visits annually, and many more non-emergency injuries. Common soccer injuries include ankle sprains, achilles tendonitis, concussions, groin pulls, and hamstring injuries.

Chiropractic care can speed recovery from strains, sprains and pulls. There are also several very effective techniques to treat tendonitis, including chiropractic joint manipulation, and physiotherapies such as ultrasound therapy and hydromassage.

Baseball

Baseball is another sport with a lot of injuries. Every year there are over 150,000 emergency room admissions annually in the U.S. Common baseball injuries include rotator cuff tears, ulnar collateral ligament injuries, knee injuries, and tendonitis.

Severe rotator cuff injuries may require surgery, but your chiropractor can help speed your rehabilitation and relieve pain. Modalities such as electric stim therapy, ultrasound, exercises to extend range of motion, and correction of improperly balanced muscles between the chest and back may be helpful in speeding recovery and in preventing future injuries.

Skateboarding

Skateboarding continues to gain in popularity, and often results in falls, particularly in inexperienced skateboarders. These falls can be very injurious, and lead to over 110,000 emergency room visits annually. Common skateboarding injuries include sprains, strains, fractures, head injuries, facial injuries, and contusions.

A chiropractor can help speed rehabilitation from fracture injuries. Most of the time a chiropractor will not begin treatment until the fracture has begun to heal and inflammation has subsided. However, compression techniques may help the healing bone stay in alignment. Further, a prescribed series of stretches and exercises can help restore the range of motion and prevent future complications resulting from the injury.

Trampolining

Most of us have fond memories of trampolines from childhood… and some adults still them! However, they can also be very dangerous, and trampoline use leads to nearly 110,000 emergency room visits annually. Common trampoline injuries include broken bones, concussions, sprains and strains, bruises, scrapes, cuts, and head and neck injuries.

Some of these injuries can even lead to permanent paralysis or death. Installing a guard net around trampolines and closely supervising children’s trampoline use can greatly reduce the risk of injuries.

About the Author: 

Dr. Singer has been a practicing chiropractor for more than 20 years, and USA Health & Therapy has been around since 2004. Over the course of his career, Singer has helped tens of thousands of people with all kinds of issues by using a wide variety of treatment strategies. He has extensive knowledge of chiropractic modalities, including Gonstead, Diversified, Thompson Drop Table, and Activator, and in 1997 he earned a special adjunctive Chiropractic Certification in Spinal Trauma (CCST) to better provide care for car crash victims. Dr. Singer is licensed to practice chiropractic medicine in both Florida and New York.