Positive Health Online

This book is, without a doubt, very professionally presented and is an excellent handy guide for the lay person with an interest in sports injuries. It shows you how to recognize basic injuries, what you can do yourself to treat an acute injury and when you need to seek medical assistance. Each section of the book focuses on the most common sports-related injuries that effect every part of the body, from the feet to the hands, the back and the shoulders. It is easy to use, with colour illustrations and diagrams.

The book pinpoints the likely causes of an injury, including training errors such as working out too often and using the wrong kind of equipment. It also provides good information on the symptoms of an injury and therefore how to identify that there is tissue damage in the first place. This is a very useful feature of the book, as injuries are often ignored or unrecognised, only to get worse over days or weeks. Clear and colourful illustrations (mostly from the Rodale Image Library) are included in each section. These depict the general anatomy of the region and close-ups of the tissues most susceptible to injury. Having a good awareness of the anatomy and the tissues involved is not only of great interest to some athletes, but helps them to understand what is involved in the treatment and rehabilitation, thereby speeding up the recovery.

The section on injury care explains what you can do yourself when you have an injury, whilst still highlighting the importance of professional treatments. Seeking professionalhelp could have been emphasized a lot more in certain type of tissue damage, such as herniated disc and fracture of the back. On the whole, however, there is some good advice on how to look after an injury, primarily in the acute stage. Alongside the self treatment, there is further advice on the prevention of injuries for each region of the body.

Exercises are given at the end of each section; these are ones which you can mostly do at home. The only equipment you need are an exercise mat, a Swiss ball, some weights and somewhere to use for a 'step-up and down' routine. Apart from some unclear sub-headings for the stretching and the toning routines, the exercises are described well and demonstrated with very clear and colourful illustrations. They are very helpful when you are an athlete working out on your own, as remembering the exact exercise movements is not an easy task, and having good visual aids jogs your memory and encourages you to follow your daily programme.

In a way, this publication could have been bigger than the A5 format and 94 pages. That said, it is full of good advice, guidance and illustrations, and makes an excellent and useful handbook for the athlete.