Sports injury rates could be reduced by 25 percent if all athletes — professionals and amateurs — followed essential safety, conditioning, and preventive strategies.

Good preventive steps: Warm up before you work out, alternate days for exercising certain muscle groups, and cool down when you're done.

Stress fractures are weak spots or small cracks in the bone caused by continuous overuse. They often occur in the foot after training for basketball, running, and other sports.

Common injuries include a twisted ankle, sprained wrist, overextended elbow and damaged knee ligaments. Fortunately, you can take steps to help prevent joint damage.

A dislocation occurs when extreme force is put on a ligament, allowing the ends of two connected bones to separate. Ligaments are flexible bands of fibrous tissue that connect various bones and cartilage.

Whether it's a twisted ankle, a shin splint or a strained muscle, when should you see a doctor for a sports injury?

The ACL is most often stretched or torn (or both) by a sudden twisting motion -- when, for example, your feet are planted one way and your knees are turned another.

Jumper's knee is also known as patellar tendonitis. It may be caused by overuse of the knee joint, such as frequent jumping on hard surfaces.

Knee injuries account for 25 percent of all sports-related injuries, but proper conditioning can help prevent them.

Active women are at least twice as likely to suffer serious knee injuries as men, but it's not just athletes who are at risk.

Runner's knee occurs when the kneecap rubs against the thighbone as it moves. The condition can be caused by a structural defect or a certain way of walking or running.

Shin splints involve damage to one of two groups of muscles along the shin bone that cause pain. The location of the shin splint pain depends on which group of muscles is damaged.

Knowing about common injuries and how to prevent them can keep you on track toward achieving your fitness goals.

A stress fracture occurs when you increase the length or intensity of your workout too quickly.

Dehydration and heat stroke are two very common heat-related diseases that can be life threatening if left untreated.

Trampolines are popular. Thousands of children are rocketing skyward, and trampoline injuries are also on the rise.

Children and teens are at greater risk for heat-related illnesses for several reasons. They adjust more slowly to changes in air temperature. They also produce more heat with activity and sweat less.

Detailed information on overuse injuries in children, including jumper's knee, patellar tendonitis, little leaguers' elbow, little leaguers' shoulder, osteochondritis dissecans, Sever's disease, shin splints, Sinding-Larsen-Johansson disease, spondylolisthesis, and spondylolysis

A lumbar strain is an injury to the lower back, which results in damaged tendons and muscles that spasm and feel sore.

Because they are still growing, children are more susceptible to sports injuries. Half of those injuries could be prevented with proper safety gear, safer playing environments, and established safety rules.