What do all athletes have in common? Each one of them have 640 muscles in their body. In being an athlete there is an inherent danger of injury and the most common is the muscle injury, either sprain or strain. Each athlete has the ability to learn how to prevent any injury, and they shouldn 't wait for one to happen to educate themselves. Sports medicine is a cross over from scientific research into medical procedures, and all an athlete needs is a basic understanding of it to be able to prevent many injuries from occurring. With that basic knowledge anyone will be able to prolong the inevitable from happening. Sports medicine is here to help those athletes who have unfortunately injured themselves, nurse their injuries back to full health. …show more content…
An athlete can prevent a muscle injury by taking precautionary actions for their body’s safety and if a muscle injury does occur, using the RICE method to heal will sufficiently heal the muscle back to good health if surgery isn’t need.
To be able to prevent muscle injuries athletes first have to know what kinds of muscle injuries are out there and their symptoms. In the world today the two most common muscle injuries are sprains and strains. A muscle sprain is a stretch or tear in a ligament, which is the band of tissue that holds two bones together. A muscle strain is a stretch or tear in a tendon, which is the band of tissue that holds the muscle to the bone (Ratini). Symptoms of muscle strains include sudden onset of pain, soreness, limited range of movement and swelling (John Hopkins Hospital). An athlete is prone to these because they use a certain muscle or muscle group over and over again. Muscle sprains and strains happen when “a person falls, twists, or is hit in a way that forces the body out of its normal position” (Ratini). The most common of all the muscle injuries is a sprained ankle and “an estimated 25,000 people