It has been confirmed by several physical therapists studies that stretching and strengthening exercises lessen the chance of a minor to severe injury.  So why don’t more people take the time to do these preventative measures?  They may not realize the consequences of serious injuries and the majority of people who do know about these techniques do not know how to use them properly.  People need to be informed about preventative techniques and the proper way to utilize them before they can become effective.  A unit covering injury prevention should be included in all school physical education classes to reduce the amount of sport related injuries. Gym teachers should teach preventative exercises during class so people can be better informed on how to protect their bodies.  Dani Potter, as well as many other people, did not know information about their injury until after they had gotten hurt.  Even though strengthening exercises help repair damage to an injury, they are more effective if practiced before an injury even occurs (Walker).  People should be well informed about injuries and how they can drastically alter a body.  A great way to accomplish this task is to teach preventative measures during school.  Some people may argue that if people are worried about protecting themselves, they should learn to do it on their own.  They say introducing a new program into a school curriculum can take to much time and expense.  But school is where we learn tasks to help our selves be successful in the future.  Gym class is no different from an english class, a mathematics class, or a history class.  School in general is a place to learn new things.  If people do not know how to protect themselves, they should have the opportunity to learn how to do so.  Injury prevention is a life long lesson, just the same as always wearing a seatbelt in a car and a helmet when on a bike.Doing physical activity and specialized stretching will makes the body healthier overall.  The food guide pyramid requires at least sixty minutes a day of vigorous exercise (Mypyramid.gov).  To keep a healthy body, fitness is required.  If an injury occurs, exercise is unable to happen for a period of time, this will cause the body to become less healthy than it was before.  Stretching has many positive effects on the body.  It will enhance athletic performance, decrease likelihood of injury, and minimize muscle soreness.  It will also make muscle and tendon fibers longer so they have a greater range of movement (Walker).  An increase in range of movement will make the body less susceptible to injuries because the muscles have a less likely chance of being pulled out of a range they cannot reach (Walker).  The Prevent Injury, Enhance Performance program designed by physical therapists at Santa Monica Orthopedic and Sports Medicine group showed that specialized stretching, strengthening, agility, and jumping exercises can lower the overall ACL injury rate among female athletes (Science Daily).  The PEP program split up over 1,000 NCAA Division I soccer players into two groups.  The group that used the specialized program had an overall ACL injury rate of 41 percent lower than the group that did their regular routine (Science Daily).  Physical therapists have developed several programs to teach athletes how to avoid abnormal movements and to lessen strain on certain parts of the body.  These programs can easily be taught in gym classes all over the nation to reduce the amount of injuries and to eliminate the pain caused when an injury occurs.Injuries can not only cause pain to the body physically but also emotionally.  If gym classes taught exercises to prevent certain injuries fewer people would become hurt.  A handful of emotional problems can result from an injury.  First, kids may feel left out when they are unable to participate in the sports they love to do.  After getting hurt athletes seem to have a loss of identity.  They long to get back to working with their friends but cannot because of their recovery process.  Second, many young athletes are unable to perform at their top potential after they come back because of their fear of re-injury.  Re-injury can be very common, like an ACL for example, because the injured area and surrounding areas are not as strong as they were before.  If the body is re-injured it is very unusual that it will ever reach its full potential again (Crust).  Third, setbacks in a recovery process can cause an immense amount of pain.  Athletes in the recovery process cannot wait for the day they can get back to performance.  If something goes wrong, the brain immediately worries and fear kicks in.  Many emotional problems are specifically linked to injuries.  All of these mental issues have the possibility to be avoided if specialized exercises are used to prevent injuries.       A unit covering injury prevention should be included in all school gym classes to reduce the amount of sport related injuries. Physical and emotional pain is one direct result of injuries.  Injury prevention can spare people the emotional pain that results from the inability to accomplish certain tasks.  It is a good idea to have injury prevention outside of school as well. Like during a coaching led practice for example.  It would be wise to require coaches to implement specialized stretching during practices and games but there is no way to regulate this.  Injury prevention during physical education classes is a great way to control the injuries of young athletes because it is required to graduate high school.  By promoting injury prevention teachers and coaches can save athletes from pain while making stronger and healthier individuals at the same time.