Fall marks the peak sports season in both professional and high school sports. The NFL just got underway, MLB is headed towards the playoffs, and the NHL and NBA begin in a month. On the high school level, football, cross country, tennis, boys soccer and girls tennis gets going when the leaves begin to change color. When you’ve got a record amount of high school athletes and the majority of professional athletes competing at the same time, it’s no wonder so many injuries occur in the fall.
One of the more common injuries that can sideline a player for the remainder of their season is a stress fracture in their leg. These tend to be more common in high school athletes who don’t train correctly or who overtrain at the beginning of a season.
“Any sport with repetitive motions, such as extended running, puts you at risk of developing a stress fracture — whether it’s cross-country, basketball, swimming, gymnastics, or tennis,” said orthopedic surgeon Dr. Alexis Colvin. “Athletes are particularly at risk when they start increasing the amount of time they’re doing the activity — say, when a runners are training for a long distance race, and increase their mileage too quickly.”
Preventing Stress Fractures
The biggest issue facing athletes with stress fractures is that they try to push through the pain. Oftentimes they believe the pain is just soreness, and since they don’t want to miss any games, they play through the discomfort. This only makes the problem worse.
“It’s not like an acute sports injury due to a trauma, like taking a hit and tearing a ligament — the important thing is not to keep training through the pain, because, it’s just going to get worse,” said Colvin “There are gradations in terms of the injury to bone from overuse, and if you keep training, the bone can be broken all the way through.”
Treating stress fractures usually involves rest and gradual return to full sporting activities, but Colvin notes there are three things amateur athletes can do to help prevent stress fractures from developing.
Train Right – As we mentioned above, overuse and overstressing your body before it’s ready can lead to stress fractures. You wouldn’t try to run a marathon without working your mileage up, so don’t go into the first day of football or soccer practice without some offseason conditioning.
Wise Up – Learn more about signs and symptoms of stress fractures so you don’t let a small problem snowball out of control.
Proper Nutrition – If you’re not eating right, your body isn’t getting the vitamins and nutrients it needs. This can weaken your bones and make you more susceptible to injury. Make sure you’re getting plenty of Vitamin D, calcium and protein.
Related source: NY Daily News