5 Tips for Student Athletes to Stay Healthy and Avoid Injury

School has restarted, and with that, fall sports have begun their seasons as well. High school teams are a big commitment for student-athletes. They might be playing their sports more consistently now, maybe five or even six days in a row. If they just dove into playing sports without any preparation, both physical and mental, it is very likely that more athletes would get injured. And while some injuries are unavoidable, and soreness is often just part of the physical demands of working out, there are some key actions that any athlete can take to prevent these aches and pains.

1. Warm up before you work out, practice, or compete.

The main reason we warm up before exercise is to prepare our bodies and muscles for the workout. Specifically, warming up gets our blood pumping, which increases the blood flow to our muscles, activating them for a workout. Warming up doesn’t have to take a long time, since all you need to do is wake your muscles up. You can do this by jogging, doing dynamic stretches, or even just walking for a few minutes. Any way to get your body warm, and maybe even a little sweaty, counts as a warm up. As student-athletes, practices are mainly directly after school, or later in the evenings. Either way, the majority of your day by that point has probably been spent sitting down at a desk. If you’ve been sitting for a large amount of time, your body and muscles get stiff, and you aren’t ready to dive into a workout. When you incorporate a warm up before you workout or play your sport, you are basically waking your body and muscles up and preparing them to play and compete.

2. Stretch your muscles, both before and after your activity.

After you have warmed up, the next thing you need to do is stretch out your muscles. Stretching is essential to keeping your muscles strong and ready to play. There are two main types of stretching for athletes—static and dynamic. Static stretches are when you hold a position for a longer amount of time with less movement. Dynamic stretches are mobility-focused stretches to prepare you for whatever your workout is. Dynamic stretches also can be included in your warm up, so you can combine the warming up and stretching parts of preparing to play sometimes.

Both types of stretching are important for preparing to exercise. But sometimes stretching is forgotten about, or not taken seriously by athletes. A question put up on the Hilltopper Instagram page asked student-athletes if they took stretching seriously. While 67% of respondents said they did, 37% said “no,” which is a large group of athletes who aren’t taking care of their bodies the way they should be.

There are many reasons why athletes might not take stretching seriously. They might not understand the benefits of it, such as being more flexible, getting stronger, and lowering injury risk. They also might not understand the consequences of not stretching, like having tight, weak muscles and a heightened risk of injury. When we don’t stretch, your muscles shorten and tighten up, which makes it hard to use our muscles to their full potential. But a lot of times people don’t understand the importance of stretching, or they don’t feel the impact of it on their muscles, so they either skip stretching or don’t take it seriously. One way to engage everyone on a sports team to stretch is by doing it as a team at the beginning and end of every practice, to get people in the habit of stretching properly.

However, through another poll on the Hilltopper Instagram, it was found that at Needham High School, 33% of respondents said their team either “kind of” stretched together, or didn’t stretch together at all. If teams stretch all together, everyone is prepared to practice or play and it establishes good habits outside of the season. When teams don’t stretch together some athletes may not do it at all if they don’t know how, or don’t feel motivated to stretch.

3. Cross train!

Cross training includes strength training, lifting, running, going to the gym, playing another sport for fun, or finding other ways to use muscles you don’t use as much in your primary sport. It is an important part of being a well-rounded athlete, but it is often overlooked by athletes because it doesn’t seem like it directly connects your primary sport.. A recent study from the University of Georgia found that “high school students who focus on one sport are more likely to get injured or suffer from burnout.” Every sport uses different muscles and different parts of the body. When you only play one sport, and don’t incorporate any other type of exercise into your routine, you are developing the specific muscles you use in that sport while neglecting other muscles that need to be developed.

Working out and strength training are great ways to cross train and keep your muscles well rounded and healthy, and a lot of athletes take advantage of the gym in the off-season. But some athletes don’t enjoy that type of exercise, don’t have access to a gym, or can’t motivate themselves to play something other than their primary sport. A fun way to incorporate new muscles into your exercise is by taking up a second sport. Playing two sports is a great way to use different muscle groups and try something different!

4. Eat enough nutrients, drink enough water, and get enough sleep every night.

Although playing sports can be time consuming, and as student-athletes, sometimes schedules get overwhelming, staying healthy outside of your sport is a big part of being healthy for your sport. Eating healthy, drinking enough water, and getting enough sleep, contribute to overall better mental and physical health which are major parts of being an athlete.

Eating healthy often is associated with eating a balanced diet with fruits, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy. Fruits and vegetables should be a big part of an athlete's, or anyone’s, diet because they contain vitamins, minerals, fiber, water, and antioxidants, which combine to give you energy and hydration, among other things. Grains are also important because they have high amounts of carbohydrates, fibers, and minerals which provide the body with substance and energy for intense exercise. Proteins, full of amino acids, are vital to repairing and building muscles. Last is dairy, which is full of calcium, potassium and protein. These are all essential nutrients and essential food groups for bone strength and muscle recovery.

In addition to eating well, drinking enough water is one of the most important parts of taking care of yourself outside of your sport. When you work out, you usually sweat. Sweat is 99% water, so when we sweat, we lose water from our bodies. That is why as athletes, we need to drink water to replenish the water we lose from working out.

Eating well and drinking plenty of water are important parts of taking care of yourself as an athlete, but there is one more thing that often is overlooked: getting enough sleep. Sleep is important for keeping yourself energetic and awake for the next day. It’s also crucial for muscle and bone development. It is recommended to get at least eight hours of sleep each night. Getting this much sleep leads to better reaction times, better muscle memory and lower stress levels, all parts of being an athlete. Some tips for getting good sleep include going to bed and waking up around the same times every day, turning off your phone and other technologies an hour before bed, and avoiding caffeine in the afternoon and evening.

5. Know yourself. Don’t try to play through an injury. Rest days are okay!

One last piece of advice for student-athletes is to know your body and your limits. Sometimes it feels like there is a lot of pressure to be ready to compete all the time. This isn’t reasonable. Sometimes our bodies need a day to recover. Putting more strain on your body if it hurts is only going to make it worse. When you try to play through injuries or pain, you might be unknowingly playing in a way that is unnatural for your body to try and protect yourself from getting hurt. While this might protect the part of you that hurts, you now are vulnerable to injuring new areas of your body that aren’t used to being used as they are now. This is a main way athletes injure themselves.

There is also a distinction between a severe injury and a minor one. Sometimes just a mild misstep or odd twist of your leg will hurt for a few minutes, and waiting it out is the best option. But other times, it won’t be solved that easily, and you might need to sit out. There shouldn’t be any pressure to play through an injury. You can sit out, get it evaluated, or just wait and see how you feel. The best thing to do is whatever feels comfortable for you!

Although taking all these steps may be time consuming and seem tedious, the positive effect they will have on you as an athlete will be worth your time and effort. Stretching and warming up will prepare you to compete at your best. Taking care of yourself outside of your sport by cross training, eating well, drinking enough water and getting good sleep will help you stay healthy, both physically and mentally. And knowing yourself and your limitations will help protect you from potential injury. All of these things will help you be a successful athlete so you can play your sport this year, and in the future.