Pushing the limits: Athletes reach breaking point

Lizzie Catrambone, IDR Editor

Anyone who has played, or even just watched, a sport knows that injuries are very common.  One minute, a player will be running around perfectly fine, and the next minute, they will be on the ground crying out in pain.  So why are sports injuries so common, and how do they happen?

The most common sports injury is classic overuse.  Most teams practice for over an hour, every day.  That means that the athletes on the team are using the same muscles and motions every day, for hours upon hours each week.  According to Web MD, this overuse and this sudden influx in activity can cause stress fractures.

According to Web MD, stress fractures are very common in sports, and are tiny breaks in the bone.  They are caused by repetitive motion, like those in running, and are very painful.  Junior Anna Boegner was brought down by stress fractures last year and consequently missed out on the remainder of her running season.  Boegner says she “just ran too much too fast, fractured my shins, and was out for the second half of the season.”  In order to get rid of her stress fractures, Boegner had to go through physical therapy and periods of rest.

Tendonitis is also a very common injury in field hockey, along with various sprains, muscles strains, tears and stress fractures.  Out of all of these injuries however, Lauren Taber was affected by a rare one.  “It was during tryouts, and I took a field hockey stick to the face, so I broke my nose,” Taber says. “I had to have surgery on my nose to put it back into place, and I was out for probably three weeks, and I still have to play with a mask on my face.”

In order to prevent injuries, athletes are advised to start off slow, and then build up the intensity.  Going from little activity to suddenly a lot can through the body off guard, and more injuries are likely to occur.  Proper warm-ups and cool-downs also help the body prepare to do activity and to get the lactic acid out of the muscles.  Just these few steps can help prevent painful and inconvenient injuries in all sports across the board.