Wellness Tips for Sports

This week, let’s talk about ways to keep yourself healthy when you play sports. Every game is different, of course, but many of the health tips can be taken across all different kinds of activity. Maybe you like football, maybe you like running, maybe you like horseback riding. Whatever sport you participate in, most of these tips will help you protect your body from harm while you play.
1. Stretch. I cannot stress this one enough! Stretching is one of the main warmups across all different sports and cannot be impressed enough upon you. Stretching helps to warm up and loosen your muscles before you start running or riding or dancing. Without stretching your chances of pulling a muscle increase a large amount and the possibility of it being an important muscle or tendon are, of course, also increased because when it rains, it pours, right?
2. Wear Appropriate Clothing. This is another point which may seem obvious but I have seen it happen time and time again that people go to perform a stunt or play a game and they aren’t in the right clothing and end up getting hurt. Restrictive clothing, especially pants, is one of the things that is most dangerous. Even if you don’t get hurt, the risk of your embarrassment increases if you’re trying to do a split in tight pants. We don’t necessarily want to know what kind of underwear you have on, even if they are clean.
3. Footwear! This is the real nasty one, so I had to put it in a different point. If you are trying to do something active while wearing the wrong shoes you can seriously hurt yourself. Sometimes going barefoot is safer than wearing the shoes you have on and going barefoot is almost never safe while playing sports. Be super careful what you have on your feet when doing this!
4. Safety Gear. There is a reason it exists. Although it won’t prevent every injury, things like helmets and pads are super important to wear and wear correctly if you have them. If you don’t, reconsider whether you really want to play, especially if you are the smallest of the group. Helmets especially!
At the end of the day, injuries will occur. It’s unfortunate, but they are almost unavoidable. However, these few tips will help reduce the likelihood of your getting hurt. At the end of the day, exercise appropriate caution and keep yourself as healthy as possible.