Competitive athletes learn from their first day of training that in order to become better, stronger, and faster, they need to train harder than they have ever done before. They also know that overtraining is a real possibility, this creates a delicate balance between training hard and getting the proper rest.

Quiz: If you’ve just hurt yourself — for example, sprained your ankle or tweaked your shoulder hitting a tennis serve  — do you ice the injury or apply heat to it?

Or how about chronic soreness or swelling from conditions like osteoarthritis or lower back pain? What’s more effective: heat or cold?

These are questions many people have, and a surprising number aren’t certain about the answer.

In recent years, the general public has become more educated about the dangers of concussions than at any previous time in history. This increased awareness may be attributed in part to advances in sports medicine, improvements in diagnosis and treatment, and increased media coverage — particularly of major sports stars, both past and present, who have suffered career-threatening head injuries.

More than one million high school athletes play football in the United States each year. The sport is characteristically exciting, fast-paced, and physically rough, ensuring that every player will regularly experience all manner of bumps and bruises during their season.

RICE treatment, or RICE therapy, is the immediate application of Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation to a minor soft tissue injury like a sprain. RICE is a popular first aid treatment designed to help manage swelling, pain, and blood flow.

It has the advantage of being simple enough that anyone can use it — on the athletic field, at the site of an accident, or at home.

Are you a golfer with a sore lower back? Is your elbow, hand, wrist, knee, or shoulder causing you pain? You may have a golf injury brought on by poor form or repetitive strain.

Tennis is a relatively safe, low-impact sport that is popular with people of all ages. However, tennis injuries can happen to anyone. Some of the most common injuries may surprise you.

If you're an adult who participates in a strenuous sport or physical activity on the weekends, you're what's called a "weekend warrior." Getting out and exercising is a good thing — but if, like most Americans, you've been sitting 40 or more hours per week, you're likely to see an injury in your future.

The Achilles tendon is the thickest tendon in the body, running alongside the back of the lower leg and ankle. It connects the heel bone (calcaneus) to the muscles at the back of the calf and controls the raising and lowering of the heel. The Achilles tendon is one of the most frequently injured tendons, especially among athletes. A sore Achilles can affect your walking, running, and sports...

Statistically, men and women sustain sports injuries at about the same rate; but how they get injured, and why, are not exactly the same. Are you familiar with the most common sports injuries for women?