Injury Prevention and Safety During Exercise

Although there are many benefits to be gained from being active, there are also some risks associated with exercise. However, if you choose appropriate activities and take into consideration the safety factors, the risk of an accident or injury can be reduced. Many light activities, such as walking, aqua aerobics or tai chi, bear little risk of injury. However, several factors need to be considered before you take part in more strenuous exercise, such as contact sports, long distance running and martial arts. If you think through these carefully, the risk of injury will be reduced. Some of these factors relate to general activities and some are more to do with sport.

Current health

It is always advisable for people with a specific health problem to consult a doctor before taking up an exercise programme. During exercise your body has to work harder to cope with the demands. For people with certain health problems, exercise of the wrong type or intensity could make their condition worse or put them at risk of further problems. People with asthma, diabetes, heart problems or those who are obese may need to consult a doctor before doing certain physical activities.

Fitness

Whether you are exercising for health or performance reasons, it is important that you do not try to do too much exercise too soon. If you have not been very active, you should start with gentle exercise so that your body can become used to it. As your fitness improves you can gradually increase the intensity or amount of exercise that you do. In this way you will be able to increase fitness without putting too much strain on your body. If you do too much too soon then you may be injured.

It is especially important to remember this when joining fitness classes and martial arts classes after a period of inactivity. A good instructor will remind you to work at a rate that is comfortable for you, so do not feel pressurised into working at the same rate as other more experience people in the class, as this could lead to injury.

Even if you have been active you may need to improve your fitness before you are ready to take on a greater physical challenge. Often people decide to take up an activity to get fit, when they really need to be fit before they start that activity. In sports where there is physical contact between players, you could easily be injured if you come up against someone who is physically fitter and stronger than you. In outdoor activities, you need to know your limits of fitness and work within those limits. For example, if you tackle a long rock-climbing route without having the necessary level of fitness, you are more likely to fall. Although the safety rope will save you, you may still be injured during the fall.

Once you have considered these factors and have decided to do an activity, you need to think about a different set of constraints.

Jewellery

In some activities such as walking and swimming, it does not matter whether you wear jewellery or not. However, in most other activities it can be dangerous and put you or your opponent at risk of injury. In any activity where you come into contact with another person or are at risk from an injury, you should not wear jewellery. Many sports have rules which state that all jewellery must be removed. If you are injured and are wearing jewellery, it may cause problems.

If you hurt your finger and it swells, a ring could cause further problems and may have to be cut off. In contact sports a watch or other jewellery could cut or injure another player. In dance, jewellery could get caught on another dancer or on an item of clothing.

Warm-up

A warm-up is an important part of any physical activity. It helps you prepare your body physically and mentally for the activity you are about to do.

Physical state

In some activities you may need to tie long hair up or cut your nails short before participating. In netball, the umpires must check the length of the players’ fingernails before a match. This is to prevent players being scratched or cut by each other’s long nails.

Rules

It is important for physical activities involving a number of people to have clear rules and guidelines and to be well controlled so that everyone can participate safely. If everyone sticks to the rules and plays fairly, unnecessary injuries will be prevented. The officials in a match or competition have a responsibility to ensure that players abide by the rules and that the activity is safe. In contact sports it is important that opposing teams are matched according to age, body size or level of experience. That is why there are age groups for children’s activities, weight categories for martial arts and leagues with different divisions.

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