Summer is here and that means fun in the sun. For most people, that also means more free time for summer activities: swimming, wakeboarding, jet skiing, boating, scuba diving, backpacking and more.
While these sports can be thrilling and energizing, they also bring with them different risks of injury. Below are tips on how to prevent summer sports injuries, so you can enjoy every minute of summer!

Tips:

• Wait 30 minutes after eating a meal before getting into the water
• Never drink alcohol and operate any mechanical vehicle including boats, jet skis and scuba gear.
• Do not try to push too hard, especially if you are tired. People usually injure themselves when their bodies are fatigued.

• Get trained by a professional wakeboarding instructor.
• Do strength training to protect your body from exhaustion injuries.
• Use bindings that feature effective release mechanisms.
• Use a towrope with a plastic or foam coating to reduce lacerations.
• Make sure the boat driver is sober!
• Always wear a life jacket and a helmet.

• Always wear a life jacket.
• Do strength training to prevent knee and lower extremities injuries.
• Use a towrope with a plastic or foam coating to reduce lacerations.
• Make sure the boat driver is sober!
• If you are a novice, have the boat pull you at a slower pace.
• Use skis that are fitted to you; the bindings should be snug but will release if you fall.
• Never ski at night, in shallow water or in front of another boat.
• Avoid rough water and unknown areas; there may be unseen dangers.
• Wear a helmet to protect against head injury.

Scuba Diving

Scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) diving is a sport that is popular among vacationers around the world. It is the sport of swimming underwater, usually with fins, while using self-contained breathing equipment.
By nature, scuba diving is a dangerous sport. There are many issues that you need to address throughout a dive.

Common injuries include: Ruptured eardrums, damage to sinuses, decompression sickness, nitrogen narcosis, skin cuts and grazes.
To prevent injury:

• Get certified! Diving requires some training and/or certification.

• Train for strenuous activity before the trip; do aerobic exercise and strength training.
• Don't try to overstuff your pack. As a general rule, your pack should weigh no more than one-third of your body weight.
• Use hiking poles to distribute the extra pack weight and avoid back injury.
• Only hike in full daylight.
• Keep a first aid kit handy. Remember to include moleskin for blisters.
• Bring plenty of water, and stay hydrated!
• When hiking, keep your eyes on the trail.

Swimming is good exercise (that's obvious). Swimming is a lifetime sport that benefits the body and the whole person! But what is it that makes swimming good, specifically? That depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Swimming is a healthy activity that can be continued for a lifetime - and the health benefits swimming offers for a lifetime are worth the effort it takes to get to the pool.

Why do you swim? For the health benefits to your heart and lungs? For the chance to be with some of your friends at the pool? Because, in your case, running everyday hurts? Because you like the feeling of floating and sliding through the water? Or is it something else? If you are looking for a break from the heat of the summer, then a dip in the water is exactly what you need; swimming is a way for you to cool off. It fills a wonderful recreational need for individuals and families, from beach and pool fun to water parks.

Maybe you are a runner, training on a regular basis, and want to find an activity that keeps your heart rate up but takes some of the impact stress off of your body. Perhaps you have been doing some other form of land exercise, and now an injury prevents you from putting weight on a knee or ankle. Swimming can help you. Kicking workouts, water aerobics, pool running, or a regular swimming workout can all give you a great exercise session without the weight of your body pounding you with each move. Regular swimming builds endurance, muscle strength and cardio-vascular fitness. It can serve as a cross-training element to your regular workouts.

Before a land workout, you can use the pool for a warm-up session. Swimming with increasing effort to gradually increase your heart rate and stimulate your muscle activity is easily accomplished in the water. After a land workout, swimming a few laps can help you cool-down, move blood through your muscles to help them recover, and help you relax as you glide through the water.

Swimming does burn calories at a rate of about 3 calories a mile per pound of bodyweight. If you weigh 150 lbs. and it takes you 30 minutes to swim one mile (1,760 yards or 1,609 meters), then you will be using about 900 calories in one hour. However, many swimmers do not swim that quickly, and many cannot swim for that distance or duration.

Spending time in a group workout, whether water aerobics or a master's swim practice, is a great social outlet. Exchanging stories, challenging each other, and sharing in the hard work make swimming with others a rewarding experience.

There are other psychological benefit to swimming, if you allow it to occur. Relax and swim with a very low effort. Let your mind wander, focusing on nothing but the rhythm of your stroke. This form of meditation can help you gain a feeling of well-being, leaving your water session refreshed and ready to go on with the rest of your day. Many swimmers find an in-direct benefit form swimming. They develop life skills such as sportsmanship, time-management, self-discipline, goal-setting, and an increased sense of self-worth through their participation in the sport. Swimmers seem to do better in school, in general terms, than non-swimmers as a group.

One thing swimming is not good for is losing a lot of weight. The on-line Merck Manual explains that swimming is not the best way to lose weight due to the cooling effects of being in the water. While you do use a lot of calories swimming, once you get out of the pool much of that calorie burning stops. Doing land based exercise like running or cycling may use about the same amount of calorie per hour as swimming, but once you stop exercising the land-based workout usually leads to continued increase in calorie use for as long as 18 hours after the workout. Why? Because when you are in the pool you don't heat up as much as you do on land and your body does not have to work to cool you down as much once the exercise session concludes. Swimming does exercise almost the entire body - heart, lungs, and muscles. - with very little joint strain. It is great for general fitness and not just a great way to drop excess pounds.