Regardless of the sport, leg injuries can be common. However, some parts of the leg are more prone to injury than others. In this article, we'll take a look at these parts and how you can protect them:
Knee
The knee is the largest joint in your body and it's also one of the most important. It serves as a hinge for the leg and thigh, allowing you to flex, extend, abduct and adduct your leg. Knees are under a lot of stress since they have to bear all our weight when we're walking or running. If we don't train our joints properly, this can result in an injury that could sideline us from sports for quite some time.
Here are some common injuries:
Sprained ligaments (ACL) - Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) sprain occurs when there's too much strain on the ligament causing it to tear or stretch beyond its normal range of motion.
Torn cartilage - Cartilage injuries commonly occur in football because players often twist their knees while moving quickly across the field.
Stress fractures - Stress fractures occur due to repeated trauma over time; they often happen when someone takes up running without first building up their endurance.
Ankle
The ankle is a complex joint that can be sprained, broken or dislocated. It’s also the most common injury among athletes. The pain and swelling you experience after an ankle sprain usually decreases within a few days but can last as long as three weeks.
The ligaments around your ankles act like shock absorbers to help distribute force evenly across your foot and leg during walking or running. Healthy ligaments are elastic and firm, which allows them to stretch when you move your foot forward, but the tissue returns to its original position when you stop moving it forward. Sprains occur when someone twists their foot in such a way that one or more of these ligaments becomes stretched beyond their normal range of motion (known as “overstretching”). This overstretching causes tiny tears in the connective tissues that hold together surrounding tissues such as muscles, tendons and cartilage disks located between our bones
Muscle
A muscle injury is a type of soft tissue injury that can be caused by overuse, or by sudden impact. Muscle injuries are divided into two categories: acute (meaning they happen suddenly and require immediate treatment) and chronic (meaning they have been going on for longer than four weeks). Common types of muscle injuries include strains, tears, cramps and tendonitis.
Most muscle injuries are a result of overuse, or too much activity in one area of the body. Muscle strains can occur when you overexert yourself and cause small tears in your muscles. A muscle cramp is caused by an imbalance in electrolytes, which can be remedied by resting and replenishing lost salts through food and water intake. Tendonitis occurs when a tendon becomes inflamed due to overuse, often resulting from repetitive activities such as typing or playing sports.
How to protect
Wear the right shoes. Your shoes are an important part of your workout routine and can help prevent injury if they are the right size and fit your feet correctly.
Warm up and stretch before you exercise, especially if you have never done that particular kind of activity before.
Do exercises that strengthen the muscles around your knees, such as lunges or squats (where you lower yourself down slowly), rather than downhill running or jumping jacks.
Wear ankle braces when exercising in high-risk situations like basketball games or football practices/games to reduce strain on the ligaments connecting your shinbones with each other (tibia) and with your fibula bones below them). In addition, knee sleeves such as compressa knee sleeves might protect against strains from overuse during running sports such as soccer or baseball by supporting both sides of bone structure above kneecap called patella).
The leg is a complex structure made up of many different bones, muscles and ligaments. There are a few key areas that are more prone to injury than others, so we should pay more attention to protect them.