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According to experts, as much as 20 percent of all sports-related injuries involve the lower back or neck. Running and weightlifting, and other sports that involve repetitive impact, expose children to a high risk for lumbar (lower back) injuries. Contact sports, such as soccer and football, expose the cervical spine, or neck, to injury. More than one-third of all high school football players sustain some type of injury. Soccer participants are easy candidates for mild to severe head traumas, neck injuries, cervical spine damage, headache, neck pain, dizziness, irritability, and insomnia. Heading the ball, the act of using the head to re-direct the soccer ball, has been linked with cervical injuries in children and adults. The trampoline and gymnastics also present significant risks for spinal cord injuries from unexpected and brute falls or contact with hard surfaces.

Here’s a look at some of the other common injuries by sport:

• Bicycling – Poor posture can greatly increase your risks of a back injury during cycling. When riding a bike, your lower back is constantly flexing sideways and up and down. Upper back injuries can involve the flexing of the neck. And the bumps and jars incurred on the road during cycling can wreak havoc and possible compression injuries to your spine.
• Golf – Common injuries incurred during the sport of golf usually involve muscle sprains and strains to the lower back.
• Running/jogging – Running and jogging puts a great deal of stress on your back since the constant pounding against a hard surface can jar, and possibly compress, structures such as vertebrae, joints, and discs.
• Skiing – Skiing involves a great deal of twisting and turning motions, as well as jarring landings, all of which can cause muscle sprains and strains and in some cases, minor spinal fractures.
• Swimming – Swimmers are known to incur lower back injuries. Motions such as the crawl or breaststroke can cause the lumbar region to be hyperextended. If the swimmer is not properly conditioned or warmed up, the hyperextension sometimes doesn’t subside.
• Tennis – “Tennis elbow” is a layman’s term for pain on the lateral, or outside part of the elbow, on or near the bony protrusion. Tennis elbow is caused when the tendon from the elbow bone tears or is ruptured. It is no surprise that professional tennis players can become inflicted with this with all of the stress and strain they place on the joint during play. In addition, tennis players are in constant motion, and the repeated twisting and trunk rotations can cause injuries. Shoulder injuries and turned ankles and knees also are common. The act of serving the ball also has been shown to hyperextend the lower back, and possibly compress discs.
• Weight lifting/bodybuilding – Body builders are at significant risk for a host of serious back, shoulder, neck, and knee injuries. Resistance training has been known to cause muscle sprains and strains, ligament and tendon injuries, and in some cases, stress fractures (also called spondylolysis). Older people seem to be at higher risk since their bones and discs are more brittle.

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Common causes of neck pain include, but are not limited to:

• Cervical herniated disc.
• Cervical stenosis, which is caused by a herniated disc or degenerative joint, can cause pain to radiate down the arm, and lead to shooting pain and coordination problems in the arms and legs.
• Muscle strain degeneration of the facet joint cartilage.
• Osteoarthritis of weight-bearing joints, such as hips and knees.

A sprain of the muscles, ligaments, or tendons in the neck area usually causes acute neck pain. Vehicular accidents, repeated carrying of heavy items (such as luggage), or awkward sleeping positions are often the culprits. Most minor ligament or tendon injuries in the neck will subside with proper care, including rest, ice or heat application, and rehabilitation such as chiropractic care and physical therapy.

One common symptom of chronic neck pain is an ache that radiates down the arm, sometimes into the hands and fingers, accompanied by numbness or tingling. Foraminal stenosis, a condition caused by degenerative changes in the neck joints, involves a herniated disc or a pinched nerve. This in turn causes chronic neck pain.

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Many kinds of leg pain can be traced to problems with the sciatic nerve. Sciatica pain occurs when one or more of the spinal nerves become compressed. A disc herniation is often the culprit. Other causes include spondylolisthesis, spinal stenosis, and arthritis.

While the pain typically travels down, or radiates, along the sciatic nerve, it is often felt in the lower buttocks, the back of the leg, and even the bottom of the foot. Symptoms include numbness, tingling, and/or a burning or prickling sensation.

It is very important that you seek medical attention if you experience these kinds of symptoms because long-term compression of the sciatic nerve can cause permanent damage. In addition, untreated sciatica nerve damage can cause such problems as loss of bladder and bowel control.

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Lower back pain is often caused by a muscle strain. The erector spinae, or large paired muscles in the lower back that help keep your spine erect, can become inflamed and spasm. In more serious cases, the pain may be caused by a degenerative condition, such as arthritis, disc disease, or disc herniation.

A degenerative disc condition can sometimes cause a chain reaction of other events in your spine. When a disc is not in its proper place, or is malformed from disease or some other condition, it can allow additional undue pressure on other healthy structures, such as neighboring discs, nerves, muscles, joints, ligaments, and tendons.

Rest, ice or heat therapy, and over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medicine, such as aspirin, are often the first course of treatment for mild lower back pain. This allows your muscles to return to their normal position and begin to heal.

Because the thoracic spine is the sturdiest part of the spine, it is less prone to injury. That said, upper back pain, while less common than lower back pain, is often caused by irritation of the muscles or a problem with a joint. Other less common causes of upper back pain include herniated or degenerative discs.

However, rest for a sore back should be kept to no more than two weeks. Otherwise, the muscles in the lower back begin to atrophy and can become significantly weak, leaving you open to further undue pain and injury.

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Heat therapy is often used in patients who have chronic or long-lasting pain. Heat therapy can involve many kinds of methods, from simple heating pads, wraps, and warm gel packs, to sophisticated techniques, such as therapeutic ultrasound.

Back injuries can create tension and stiffness in the muscles and soft tissues of the lumbar region, or lower back. In many cases, your circulation may be impeded.

The tension in the muscles can sometimes escalate to spasms.

Heat therapy:

• Dilates the blood vessels of the affected muscles, allowing them to relax and begin healing.
• Helps lower discomfort by reducing the amount of pain signals going to the brain.
• Increases the ability of your muscles to easily flex and stretch, thereby decreasing stiffness.

Heat therapy, as well as ice therapy, are normally parts of an overall chiropractic treatment plan and rarely accomplish maximum results without it.

Heat therapy is not used on swollen or bruised tissues, or in patients who have dermatitis, deep vein thrombosis, diabetes, peripheral vascular disease, open wounds, and cardiovascular conditions such as hypertension.

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Ice causes the veins in the affected tissue area to constrict. This reduces the flow of blood while acting as kind of anesthetic to numb the pain. But when the ice is removed (and this is key), the veins compensate by expanding, which then allows a large volume of blood to rush to the affected area. The blood brings with it important chemicals that aid in the healing process.

Back and neck injuries frequently involve muscle sprains and strained ligaments, which can spasm and become inflamed.

Ice massage, or cryotherapy, is effectively used to treat many kinds of injuries, including those associated with back or neck pain.

Ice massage can provide a number of benefits, including:

• Assisting the body in minimizing tissue damage
• Mitigating muscle spasms
• Reducing or eliminating pain by numbing sore soft tissues

Ice therapy is not recommended as a form of treatment for any kinds of rheumatoid arthritis, Raynaud’s Syndrome (a circulatory disorder of blood vessels of the extremities), colds or allergic conditions, paralysis, or areas of impaired sensation.

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