Injury prevention and recovery
Physical Education · GCSE · The School
Two kinds of injury
ACUTE injuries happen suddenly — a sprain, a fracture, a dislocation. CHRONIC (overuse) injuries build gradually — tendinopathy, shin splints, stress fractures. Acute injuries have a moment you can name; chronic ones have a training pattern behind them, which is why the treatment is different.
Immediate care
The current guidance is PEACE & LOVE. First: PROTECT, ELEVATE, AVOID anti-inflammatories, COMPRESS, EDUCATE. Then, after the first days: LOAD, OPTIMISM, VASCULARISATION, EXERCISE. It replaced RICE because prolonged rest and routine anti-inflammatories are now understood to slow tissue healing rather than help it.
Recovery
Sleep is the single most effective recovery tool and the one most often skipped. Add active recovery, rehydration and refuelling, gradual return to load, and rest days built into the plan rather than taken when forced. Returning before rehabilitation is complete is the commonest cause of re-injury.
The warm-up that actually prevents injury
Prevention is mostly done before anyone is hurt, and the structure is examinable. A warm-up has three parts in order: PULSE RAISER, five minutes of easy movement to raise heart rate and muscle temperature; MOBILITY and DYNAMIC STRETCHING, taking joints through the range the sport will demand while moving — leg swings, lunges, arm circles; then SPORT-SPECIFIC drills at rising intensity. The cool-down reverses it: gentle activity to clear the working muscles, then static stretching, which is where held stretches belong. Alongside that sit the things that prevent more injuries than any warm-up does — correct technique, appropriate protective equipment, checked surfaces and equipment, matching players by size and age, and obeying the rules, which mostly exist for this reason.
The risk factors, sorted into two lists
Injury questions are much easier when the causes are split. INTRINSIC factors come from the performer: previous injury, poor technique, muscle imbalance or weakness, inadequate warm-up, fatigue, age and overtraining. EXTRINSIC factors come from outside: the playing surface, weather, unsuitable or worn equipment, incorrect footwear, contact with an opponent, and coaching that progresses load too fast. Sorting them this way lets you answer both halves of a question about prevention, because intrinsic factors are addressed through training and technique while extrinsic ones are addressed through checks, rules and equipment.
Overtraining, and why rest is training
Adaptation happens during recovery, not during the session — training provides the stimulus and the body rebuilds while it rests. Which is why a programme with no recovery produces overtraining rather than faster progress: persistent fatigue, performance falling despite continued work, disturbed sleep, raised resting heart rate, irritability and more frequent illness and injury. Answers about designing a training programme should include rest days, variation between hard and easy sessions, and progressive overload applied gradually. Saying that rest is part of the programme rather than a break from it is the point examiners are looking for.