You use your entire body when you exercise. This includes the use of your muscles, bones, tendons and joints. Everything in your body generally becomes stronger as a result of this, but it can also go wrong at times. You can sprain your ankle, break a bone, tear a tendon or strain a muscle. When this happens, we refer to it as a sports injury.
The symptoms will be different for each sports injury. We therefore recommend clicking on an injury which comes closest to your symptoms. What all injuries have in common is that they occur during exercise. The most common injuries are:
- A twisted or sprained ankle.
- A groin injury.
- A whiplash in the thigh muscles.
- A meniscus tear to the knee.
- A tear in the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee.
- A tennis elbow.
- A whiplash in the calf.
- A shoulder injury.
- An irritation of the tendon attachment on the tibia.
We recommend you click on the injury which comes closest to your symptoms for correct and specific advice. But there’s also some general advice you can follow in the event of a sports injury. For example, we recommend that you:
- Take enough rest. Don’t overload your muscles, joints and tendons.
- Move your injured body part again as soon as you are able to. With some injuries, some gentle exercising is necessary to allow the injury to heal.
- Slowly build up exercise and intensive sports again. Enlist the help of a physiotherapist to guide you properly if necessary.
We recommend you contact your GP if:
- Your symptoms don’t improve or go away.
- Your symptoms have worsened.
- You are in severe pain.
- You’re starting to feel more unwell.
- You can barely move.
- You are worried.
Look at the sports injury which comes closest to your symptoms for specific advice.