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Preventing Injuries
Like most athletes, you undoubtedly want to lower your chances of incurring an injury while participating in your favorite sport. Injuries decrease the amount of time you can spend in leisure activities, lower your fitness, downgrade competitive performance, and can lead to long term health problems such as arthritis.

There are some general rules for injury avoidance which apply to all sports. Sport scientists suggest that injury rates could be reduced
Preventing Injuries
by Doug Reese TTNL
Like most athletes, you undoubtedly want to lower your chances of incurring an injury while participating in your favorite sport. Injuries decrease the amount of time you can spend in leisure activities, lower your fitness, downgrade competitive performance, and can lead to long term health problems such as arthritis.

There are some general rules for injury avoidance which apply to all sports. Sports scientist suggest that injury rates could be reduced
by 25 percent if athletes took the appropriate prevention action.

Common Myths

Coaches and athletes believe that male athletes have a much higher injury rate than female athletes. Male and female athletes have about the same injury rate per hour of training. Another myth, many believe that runners who train for speed is a cause of injuries (i.e. speed kills), but research indicates that there is no link between speed training and injury risk.

Don't Over Do It

The amount of training you carry out plays a key role in determining your real risk of injury. Studies have shown that your best direct injury predictor may be the amount of training you completed last month. Fatigued muscles do a poor job of protecting their associated connective tissues, increasing the risk of damage to bone, cartilage, tendons and ligaments. If you are a runner, the link between training quantity and injury means that the total mileage is an excellent indicator of your injury risk. The more miles you run per week, the higher the chances of injury. One recent report found a marked upswing in injury risk above 40 miles of running per week.

The Best Predictors of Injury
If you have been injured before you are much more likely to get hurt than an athlete who has been injury free. Regular exercise has a way of uncovering the weak areas of the body. If you have knees that are put under heavy stress, because of your unique biomechnics during exercise, your kness are likely to hurt when you engage in your sport for a prolonged time. After recovery you re-establish your desired training load without any modification to your bio-mechanics, then your knees are
likely to be injured again.

The second predictor of injury is probably the number of consecutive days of training your carry out each week. Scientific studies strongly suggest that reducing the number of consecutive days of training can lower the risk of injury. Recovery time reduces the injury rates by giving the muscles and connective tissues an opportunity to restore and repair themselves between workouts.

Psychological Factors

Some studies have shown that athletes who are aggressive, tense and compulsive have a higher risk of injury than their relaxed peers. Tension may make the muscles and tendons taughter, increasing the risk that they will be harmed during the workout.

Weak Muscles

Many injuries are caused by weak muscles, whick are simply not ready to handle the specific demands of your sport. This is why so many people who start a running program for the first time often do well for a few weeks, but then as they add mileage on, suddenly develop foot or ankle problems, hamstring soreness, or even perhaps lower back pain. Their bodies simply are not strong enough to cope with the demands of increased training load. For this reason, it is always wise to couple resistance training with your regular training.

Make it Specific
Resistance training can fortify muscles and make them less susceptible to damage from stress, especially if the strength building exercises involve movements that are similar to those associated with your sport.

Time should be devoted to developing the muscle groups which are appropriate to the demands of your sport. This is called "specificity of training." If you are a wrestler for example then much of your training in strength should be in the pulling/rowing motions, rather than the press motions.
Injury Prevention Tips
  • Avoid training when you are tired.
  • Increase your consumption of carbohydrates during periods of heavy training.
  • Increases in training load or volume should be matched with increased amounts of rest.
  • Any increase in the training load should be preceded by an increase in strengthening through strength or resistance training.
  • Treat even seemingly minor injuries very carefully to prevent them from becoming a big proble.
  • If you experience pain when training STOP your training session immediately.
  • Never train hard if you are still stiff and sore from the previous workout.
  • Pay attention to your hydration and your nutritional plan.
  • Introduce new activities gradually.
  • Allow plenty of time for both warming up and cooling down.
  • Shower and change immediately after your cool down period.
  • Aim for maximum comfort when traveling.
  • Monitor daily for signs of fatigue, if in doubt ease back a bit.
  • Have a regular sports massage.
To The Next Level (c) 2000, 2001 Reprinted with permission.