Injuries amongst athletes are sometimes unavoidable especially in “contact” sports.

With that being said, there are some ways to lessen the chances of athletes being injured even contact sport athletes.

Below I basically brain dumped a list of ways to help with the injury bug!

1- Prepare for your sports accordingly…  Soft tissue and overuse injuries (muscles pulls etc) are really just your body telling you that it isn’t prepared for the demands placed upon it.

2- Avoid playing the same sport year round.  If you only play one sport build in designated weeks during the off-season where you don’t play that sport.  It doesn’t have to be a long extended period.. you can spread the weeks out by taking one of every 4 weeks off or something like that.

3- Get strong and flexible and maintain it.  If you already are strong and flexible get stronger in more extreme ranges of motion.  Strength can make up for a lot of mechanical flaws.  Strength in contact sports is super important for obvious reasons.  Finding extreme ranges and strengthening them is something I am working on to bring to our more advanced athletes.

4- Be CONSISTENT with your training.  It’s usually better to train 3x a week year round than 6x a week for 6 months than do no training for 6 months.

5-  Communicate with your coaches.  If you have something that bothers you let them know.  I have kids in my gym that will have an issue and then tell me about it 4 weeks after when its already gotten worse.  This doesn’t mean be SAS and sit out for every little ache but learn your body and be honest.

6- When you are injured stay active.  Do as much as you can safely.  Even its just walking or riding a bike or just doing sled or abs.  Injuries heel faster the more you move.

7-  Choose the right sport for you and your body type.  I’ve done a whole post on that here: https://bernardostraining.com/myblog/how-an-athlete-gets-stuck-in-a-sport/… Basically, young kids should experiment with all types of sports to find what they excel in and to develop lots of athletic skills.  As they get older choose sports that they fit with, which are usually the ones that they enjoy.  I see a lot of athletes getting injured IMO because they play sports that they probably shouldn’t be playing at that level.  For example, ask a 6’2″ 220 pound kid to run cross country and it probably wont turn out well.  His body type, muscle fiber make up, etc doesn’t fit the sport and he will wind up with all sorts of injuries.  Again, this is my opinion and Im not sure if there is research on it so take it for what its worth.

8- I’ll end with this… Take care of all the things that you control!  Live a healthy lifestyle… eat clean, sleep enough, drink your body weight in oz’s of water, stay fit, avoid specializing in one sport when young.  Basically everything I’ve listed you can control.