Basketball: How to Prevent Injuries
Basketball is one of the most well-loved sports. In the United States alone, there are about more than 26 million Americans who play this sports. In fact, it is the most played sport in the US, next is baseball.
Basketball is a fast-paced sport wherein you tend to move a lot. You run, jump, make twisting movements, make dribbles and passes, collide with other players, as well as shooting movements. So this sport actually increases your risk of injury.
But don’t let the fear of sustaining an injury be stopping you to play your favorite sport. To prevent yourself from having basketball injuries, try doing the following preventive measures.
Ready your body before you play.
Basketball is a high impact
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A warm up is necessary because it helps to loosen your joints and increase your blood flow. Perform your warm up at least 20 minutes before you engage in an active play. If your muscles and joints are not warmed up, you might pull your hamstring muscles or injure your ankle joints.
Don’t forget to drink a lot of water.
Even if you don’t feel thirsty, drink water before you play basketball. During a game, you can lose about 2 to 3 quarts of fluid so it is recommended that you at least drink 15 to 20 ounce of water 2 to 3 hours before the start of your game.
If you don’t hydrate your body enough, your muscles will be deprived of oxygen especially when you are playing a high impact sport such as basketball. When your muscles are active, you lose fluids and this causes your blood volume to drop, decreasing blood flow to your muscles and depriving it with oxygen.
If your muscles don’t have enough supply of oxygen, it can affect your performance since you may experience muscle pain, headaches and a diminished concentration. So to keep your muscles have its regular dose of oxygen, drink lots of water before you play so that it will replace your body’s lost