Physical Activity Safety Tips

Being active can be great for you and great fun — but not if you get hurt. Stay smart, safe, and strong with these tips.

You can find some general physical activity safety tips and learn about warming up and cooling down.

Take these basic steps to stay safe:

Be active regularly. Being active regularly builds fitness, and fit folks have a lower chance of getting hurt.

Build up slowly. Pick activities you can do now, and then slowly challenge yourself. You might add to how often you're active or to how long you're active each time. For example, maybe add five minutes to your workout every week or two.

Value variety. Try to do a mix of activities, so you don't put too much strain on the same parts of your body all the time.

Be careful on hot or humid days. If possible, move your exercise indoors. That's also a good idea on days with a lot of air pollution. If you're going to be outside, rest in the shade, take breaks, and drink lots of water.

Drink plenty of fluids. You need to drink before, during, and after activity. Read more about what to drink when working out.

Find safe places. Try to stay away from traffic and dark areas, for example. And avoid places with a lot of holes or other things that could make you fall.

Follow the rules of the game. Remember that many of the rules were made just to keep you safe. Learn more about safety in sports.

Always use the right safety equipment. Make sure that your any safety gear fits right and is in good shape.

Warming up and cooling down

Warming up is a good idea. Becoming active too fast can put too much stress on your body. To get going safely, you can just do your activity at a slower pace for 10 minutes.

After you warm up, try stretching your muscles. You also can stretch at the end of your workout. Stretching combined with warming up and strengthening exercises may help prevent injuries.

What about a cool-down after being active? Cooling down may not be essential for everyone. Still, stopping suddenly may be risky for some people, and cooling down is pretty simple. If your heart rate and breathing got faster during your workout, your cool-down should slowly get them back to normal. You can do the same activity you were doing, but do it more slowly. For example, if you've been walking fast for 45 minutes, you can walk slowly instead for around 10 minutes.

Concussion

A concussion is a type of brain injury. It can happen when your head gets hit. But it also can happen when another part of your body gets hit in a way that the force goes all the way to your brain. Concussion is a possible risk for players in any ball sports and other sports including Gymnastics & Cheer-leading! To lower the chances of getting a concussion, always make sure to follow any rules of your sport and to use the right equipment.

Symptoms of a concussion can happen right away or several hours later. They include:

• Headache

• Not being able to remember things well

• Feeling dazed, confused, or dizzy

• Nausea or vomiting

• Blurred vision

• Being sensitive to noise or light

• Having slurred speech or saying things that don't make sense

• Not being able to concentrate

• Feeling overly tired

• Passing out (but often a person with a concussion doesn't pass out)

Girls may have different concussion symptoms than boys.

In a recent study, girls were more likely to feel drowsy and sensitive to noise. Those signs can be harder to notice than boys' symptoms, which most often were confusion and not remembering things.

If you get a concussion, you must rest your body and your mind.

If you think you might have a concussion, you should stop playing right away. If you have a concussion, make sure to follow all your doctor's instructions for healing, even if you start to feel better.

When can you play again? When a doctor or other licensed health professional trained in concussions says you can.