Another practical way to explain a strain injury is through how it is managed immediately after it happens, which also makes clear what the injury actually is.
What it is: A strain is damage to a muscle or its tendon caused by overstretching or overexertion, ranging from a few torn fibres to a complete tear.
Immediate care: The standard first-aid approach is rest to stop further damage, ice to reduce swelling and pain, compression with a bandage to limit fluid build-up, and elevation of the limb above heart level, commonly remembered as R.I.C.E.
Why prevention matters: Because strains typically happen when a muscle is asked to produce or absorb force beyond what it is prepared for, proper warm-up, gradual increases in training load, and adequate flexibility are the main ways athletes avoid them.
Example: A hamstring strain is a textbook case, a sprinter accelerating without sufficient warm-up places sudden high tension on the hamstring muscles, and if that tension exceeds what the fibres can handle, they tear, producing the classic sharp pain at the back of the thigh.
Seen through its causes, immediate management, and prevention, a strain is fundamentally an overstretching or overexertion injury of muscle or tendon tissue, with the hamstring strain remaining one of its most common real-world examples.
Given below are two statements, one of which is labelled as Assertion (A) and other is labelled as Reason (R). Read both the statements carefully:
Assertion (A): The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has developed a classification process which can contribute "to sporting excellence for all athletes and sports in the Paralympic Movement, and provide equitable competition."
Reason (R): The classification process serves two roles. The first is to determine who is eligible and the second is to grouping the sports people for the purpose of competitions.
In the context of the above two statements, which one of the following is correct?