1. Sudden increase in physical activity
During summer holidays, children, teens, and young adults spend more time outdoors playing cricket, football, cycling, swimming, and other sports. A sudden jump in activity without prior conditioning puts extra load on muscles, tendons, and ligaments, leading to muscle strains, ligament sprains, and tendinitis.
2. Dehydration and muscle fatigue
High temperatures increase sweating and fluid loss, which affects muscle efficiency and coordination. This can cause muscle cramps, early fatigue, and poor joint support, increasing the risk of ankle sprains, knee injuries, and falls.
3. Concentration loss due to heat stress
Summer heat can reduce focus, slow reaction time, and impair neuromuscular coordination. In sports and outdoor movement, this often results in missteps, collisions, slips, and accidental falls, making injuries more common.
4. Rise in outdoor and recreational activities
Summer is also a season for travel, trekking, swimming, and adventure sports. Many people participate in activities they are not used to, often without proper training or safety gear. This frequently leads to fractures, dislocations, and overuse injuries.
5. Footwear and surface changes
The shift to sandals, slippers, or flip-flops during summer often compromises foot support and balance. Poor footwear, combined with dry, uneven, or slippery surfaces, can lead to slips, trips, plantar fasciitis, and minor fractures.
6. Growth spurts in children
In children and adolescents, rapid growth phases can make summer sports injuries more likely. Since bones grow faster than muscles and tendons, flexibility may reduce temporarily, increasing the risk of traction injuries and knee pain conditions such as Osgood-Schlatter disease.
7. Increased travel and road injuries
With summer vacations, road travel increases significantly. Long drives, heat fatigue, and reduced alertness contribute to more accidents, resulting in fractures, spinal injuries, and complex trauma cases.
8. Skipping warm-up and recovery
Casual summer games often begin without stretching or warm-up routines. Unprepared muscles and joints are more vulnerable to hamstring strains, ligament tears, and joint instability.
(The writer, Dr Shriram Krishnamoorthy, is a national board-certified orthopedic surgeon)