When spring comes, a lot of people have a desire to go out and exercise to get in shape. But if we start with too much enthusiasm we can hurt ourselves very easily. Here are some less prevalent injuries we should be able to recognize to prevent further problems.
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Let's take basketball for example. A beautiful game, created to be enjoyed outside with friends, or total strangers, full of competition and fun. So, you step on the field, go with the fast attack, a quick look to see where your player is and - your head went too far and you feel strong neck pain. Then you have a hard time returning your head where it was just a moment ago.
You have a neck sprain. In other words, you stretched muscles, tendons or ligaments in your neck too far. After the game you may feel the pain, it can get worse if you move your head, there can be shoulder pain, headache, fatigue, and you can't sleep well because all of that. If you feel anything else beside pain, you should see your doctor and make X-rays and MRI. Maybe you need rest; maybe you need a serious treatment.
Situation two: You have the ball, quick look left and right, there's place to go, you explode with a long, quick step and - there is a terrible pain in your leg. You just learned what a groin strain is. This is a partial tear of the small fibers of the adductor muscles on the inner side of the thigh. You just put too much stress on that muscle, it wasn't able to stand it and its fibers went bye bye.
This is a condition you can experience in any sport that requires fast movement in a burst. Prognosis is simple: Some microtearing of muscle fibers - two weeks of recovery;
partial tearing of muscle fibers - one to two months of recovery; complete rupture of muscle fibers - three months. If your doctor thinks it's about rupture, MRI is the way to go.
OK, your neck is fine, your legs are fine, and now you are in a perfect position to jump to catch that high ball. You are flying through the air, the ball is yours, you are coming down with it and - you can't hear the crowd screaming because your foot is screaming with pain. Congratulation, a march stress fracture you have. You just experienced a small break in a foot bone. There are five metatarsal bones in each foot and one of them (hopefully just one) wasn't able to stand the stress.
This injury is known as metatarsal stress fracture, older doctors called it march stress fracture, and you have a good chance to earn it if you have bad, cheap running shoes. No doubt about it, you will go through X-ray, MRI scan, or CT scan. The foot is a complex mechanism and it is important so see what went wrong. If you experience foot pain that a) feels better when resting but b) feels worse with activity, go and see the doctor. If you see redness, also go and see the doctor.
If you play basketball, or just watch it, you know that's a sport with rapid changes in movement directions and you should bend your knees to be able to react fast. When you combine those two you get an explosive move and - and explosive pain in your knee. There is s bone that makes the knee cap and it is called the patella. If it can't stand your weight, or weight of four other players on your back trying to get that ball from you, that bone can rub against the femur, another bone, and cause damage and pain.
If you have knee pain during activity, go and see the doctor. First you will feel pain under the kneecap. It will start under stress, then you will feel the pain going up the stress, and in the end your knee will hurt after long period of sitting. Then, there can be swelling of the knee, and a strange sound coming from the knee. Those symptoms are telling you to seek for help.
To live healthy life with a lot of sports is a good thing. To say "It's nothing" when you experienced symptom we describe is a bad thing. And one more to go: All you men in your 40s - don't run out with a first spring sun and jump as hell with the ball. Start slowly or you will have to read "What is a heart attack". ■