Play Healthy, Stay Healthy: Your Guide to Managing and Treating 40 Common Sports Injuries

"Play Healthy, Stay Healthy" gives guidelines for the 10 questions most frequently asked by injured athletes. From herniated neck discs to stress fractures of the foot, 40 common sports injuries are covered. For each, there are recommendations for activity level, alternative activities rehabilitation exercises, support, use of ice or heat, medication, equipment, nutrition, fluids, and surfaces. For each of the 40 injuries, there is also a summary to help readers understand the causes and treatment. And there are a total of 15 rehabilitation exercise programmes that help build strength, endurance, flexibility, or speed, depending on the needs.

You've had a sports injury. What should you do? How soon can you get back to exercise? "Listen to your body!" you've been told a hundred times, but what if you're not sure what your body is saying? Sports physician and orthopedic surgeon Gary Guten, M.D., helps you translate your body's signals into stop, go, or proceed with caution in Play Healthy, Stay Healthy, a self-help guide to managing and treating sports injuries.

This handy reference lists 40 injuries, each with definition, cause, symptoms, physician's findings, testing procedures, and prognosis. Each is given a 10-point treatment plan: activity levels, alternative activities, rehab exercises, support (e.g., brace, wrap, or cast), thermal treatment, medication, equipment, nutrition, fluids, and surfaces (for rehabilitation, exercising, and sleeping). For example, let's say you have a rotator cuff injury. An arthrogram can be helpful in diagnosing whether or not you have a tear, rather than just inflammation. Restrict overhead activities and modify arm movements to keep the shoulder down; avoid twisting; switch from racquet sports to biking, swimming, and running; and avoid running on concrete and excessively banked or curved hills. The book also includes 15 specific rehabilitation exercise programs for back, shoulder, knee, and ankle injuries, and tennis elbow. You'll find many helpful tips for healing quickly and getting active without reinjury. --Joan Price