Most sports injuries can be classified broadly into two types based on their cause: acute trauma or overuse. It is important to known the signs of both when working with any personal training client.

Traumatic injury is violent and sudden, and includes conditions such as sprains, lacerations, torn ligaments, pulled muscles, or bones broken from a fall. Overuse injuries are more common and develop over a long period of time due to mild or low-grade, repeated stress.

Acute Trauma

Immediate professional treatment is usually required with injuries from acute trauma. The injury should be examined if there is immediate swelling, pain, inability of the injured body part to be used, or severe pain that lasts for 30 to 40 minutes or more. If you here or feel a crack, tear, or pop, and there is persisting pain, professional help should be sought immediately.

Overuse Injuries

As mentioned, these are more common and develop over a long period of time due to mild or low-grade, repetitive stress. Overtraining results in overuse injuries. Such injuries are also sometimes easier to overlook.

Some examples include tennis elbow and runner's knee. This kind of injury is sometimes also associated with anatomical variations, such as flat or high arches, or an abnormally sized or positioned kneecap. The knees (i.e., Iliotibial Band Syndrome, Runner's Knee) and the Achilles tendon (i.e. Tendonitis) are most affected by overtraining.

The pain from overuse injuries is normally not severe and is often ignored by the athlete. When the injury is caused from overuse, it can be more difficult to determine whether it should be treated with profesisional help. A medical professional should be seen if the following self-care treatments do not make the pain subside within ten to fourteen days:

• ice and heat,
• decreased level of activity,
• stretching,
• treating with
• aspirin or ibuprofen.

Overuse injuries can be due also to biomechanical problems created by anatomical variations, such as flat or high arches.

It is estimated that over half of all overuse injuries are due to training errors. In runners, for example, the body experiences great stress from each run, so daily high-intensity training does not allow the body adequate time to adjust and recover. Another common scenario for overuse injuries involves and imbalance of heavy and light workouts.

There are several recommended self-care treatments.

• Cut your mileage back for seven to ten days.
• Do not run through the pain.
• Reevaluate your training habits. If the pain is severe from the outset of your activity, stop the activity completely. If it subsides during the activity and does not return until a couple hours later, decrease the level of activity.
• Consider doing some other form of aerobic exercise to maintain your cardiovascular fitness.

Inflammation should be treated with ice after the activity and aspirin or ibuprofen (both anti-inflammatories) throughout the day. A whirlpool, massage or ice and heat therapy can also help with the healing process.

To prevent overuse injuries, it is important to understand the longterm effects of the exercise program an individual is working on. Learn how it will affect bones, joints and muscles. Add a conditioning program with stretching, strengthening and crosstraining exercises into your exercise regimen. Wearing the proper shoes and socks will also aid in injury prevention.

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