Work injuries can ruin your sport

We enjoy playing our favourite sport but unfortunately once the fun is over we go back to our 9 to 5’s and sit in our office looking forward for the next kick-about.

Here at Firstaid4sport we are the sports injury know-it-alls. We can tell you all about how to prevent injury in rugby, keep out of harm’s way in football and avoid breaks and bruises in hockey, but the fact is that most sports enthusiasts across the UK are amateur – local sports teams and clubs who meet up once, twice a week maybe and spend the rest of their days in their work.

So with the majority of time spent in the office, what happens when your work injuries are affecting your performance on the pitch?

A study carried out by Microsoft featured in The Daily Mail stated that more than two thirds of workers now suffer from repetitive strain injury. This is usually down to bad ergonomic planning in the office which can sometimes lead to this long-term injury. Most commonly RSI causes aches and pains as a result of typing but other symptoms include back ache, shoulder pain and pains in hands and wrists as a result of working whilst in transit in cramped or awkward positions all of which could have a serious affect on your ability and likelihood of injury in sport.

RSI can be down to poor ergonomic facilities such as chairs, poorly positioned keyboards, computer screens and other office equipment. RSI can be prevented by regularly stretching your arms and wrists and straightening your fingers and also standing up and walking around if you feel fatigued. Ways to prevent this could be to invest in an external keyboard for Laptop users in order to gain a better ergonomic position.

Back pain is one of the most common office-related injuries. This can be down to a number of factors including a bad or ‘slouching’ posture leading to muscle fatigue, work related stress increasing muscle tension and tightness and repetition particularly if you’re stretching to the limit of your range. This again can be dangerous when playing sports and continuing to over strain an injured or sore back and could lead to further injury or long term damage.

Simply having a good ergonomic office chair and positioning it and yourself comfortably and correctly with a good posture can prevent back pain. Most companies should provide a good ergonomic chair but unfortunately this is not always the case. Instead take regular breaks to release any tension in the back and try to walk around as often as you can.