If you over-train from any sports activity and don’t find enough time for recovery, chances are you will have certain injuries that may result from repetitive use, stress and trauma. These injuries stand to affect your muscles, bones, tendons and joints. Tendonitis is a common sports training injury caused by overuse, which can lead you to feel a deep nagging pain because of the inflammation of the tendons. Another common athletic injury is the back spasms, which are intermittent but in some cases prolonged contractions of the muscles of the back. More often than not, spasms are painful and weakening. The treatment for tendonitis requires enough rest, physical therapy, medication and changes to training technique or equipment. For immediate alleviation of pain from back spasms, one needs to apply ice to the injury site and keep it there for 12 minutes at a time, and allow 20-minute recoveries in-between the ice applications.
Back spasms can result from injuries caused by chronics muscular exertion or by a blow to the back, and a fall back-first on a hard surface. The injury can also be caused by a quick, forceful twisting of the spine during a sports activity or a sudden change in direction while one is running. Among the symptoms are the pain associated with the rotation of the spine, or coming from the back even if you do not move, and some discomfort on your back when you move your arms and legs. To treat spasms, training experts recommend non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and muscle relaxants to ease the contraction on the back and decrease the pain and, at the same time increase mobility on the back.
The most common injury among athletes is the runner’s knee. A very painful injury, this is caused by weak and imbalanced leg muscles, running on a hard surface and with the wrong shoes, or with bad running forms like improper movement of the feet and over-striding. You stand the risk of having the injury if you have problems with your feet and you are unaware of its pain signals. By limiting your training, however, or by applying ice on your affected knee after training, you can reduce the pain of your runner’s knee. You can also undergo physical therapy to make your leg muscles stronger and flexible. Should any of the treatment plans fail or prove to be ineffective, and pain still persists, surgery is needed, although this should only be your last option.
Overtraining syndrome or a group of signs and symptoms oftentimes cannot be avoided. This occurs in athletes who are training for a competition or a sporting event beyond their ability to recover from such training. Symptoms of this syndrome include lack of energy, mild leg soreness, moodiness and irritability, depression, loss of enthusiasm for the sport, and sudden drop in performance, among others. But once you suspect you have over-trained, you can do away with these symptoms by having enough rest without exercise for a few days, drinking plenty of fluids and getting a sports massage for mental and physical relaxation, and cross-training especially for those with overworked muscles and mental fatigue.
