Dehydration

It’s important to keep hydrated with fluids and electrolytes before, during and after sports activity to prevent muscle cramping and muscle tears.

Insufficient warm-up

Warm-up before activity must be dynamic. This aims to warm up the muscle,

increase blood flow to the muscle and facilitate neural pathways to the muscle to activate the muscle. Should not do static stretching. Your warm-up should involve dynamic stretching and cardio work and it should last approximately 10 minutes.

Examples of dynamic stretches include:

• lunges
• high kicks
• knee to chest
• jumping jacks

Dynamic stretches are important because they activate the muscles you are about to use during your workout/game/run, they also help improve your range of motion and increases your whole-body awareness – and improves your balance and coordination.

Fatigue and lack of strength of the muscle

Muscles are more likely to tear if they’re not strong enough to handle the tensile load put through the muscle in sport. You need to consider strength and endurance.

Being aware of your endurance limitations is also important, as you are more likely to injure yourself when your body starts to tire.

Lack of pre-season training and sports-specific activities

It’s important to ensure you adequately prepare for the sport you are playing by making sure training is specific and good pre-season training is done.