Definition of injury
“Unintentional or intentional damage to the body resulting from acute exposure to thermal, mechanical, electrical, or chemical energy, or the absence of such essentials as heat or oxygen.”
Sports injuries can be caused by the following:
Factors intrinsic
Age
Gender
The body size
History of injury
Level of fitness
Flexibility/muscle strength
Level of Skill
State of mind
External factors
Equipment
Environment
Type of activity
Conditioning errors
What does Injury Prevention mean?
You can reduce the risk of injury by changing your environment, personal behavior, products and social norms.
Primary & secondary prevention:
Prevention of injuries is the primary prevention
Secondary prevention refers to preventing injury from reoccurring.
Injury prevention can be influenced by many factors. These are the following:
1. Get warm. Stretching, Taping & bracing, 4. Protective equipment, 5. Biomechanics correct, 6. Suitable equipment, 7. Appropriate surfaces, 8. Training, 8. A good recovery rate, 10. Psychology
11. Nutrition
1. 1.
Warm up can be translated as “to raise your core temperature”. Warm up is further classified in to general & sports specific warm ups.
The following are some of the benefits to warm up:
1. Increased blood circulation to the muscles
2. Smooth muscle contractions due to reduced muscle viscosity
3. 3.Enhanced mechanical efficiency for muscle
4. Positive neuro-myo conductance
5. Favorable changes to muscle receptors which reduce the sensitivity of muscles for stretching.
6. 6.
7. Sports activities can improve mental concentration
Warming up is key to injury prevention
1. Pre-warmup ROM should be increased
2. Reduce the stiffness in the connective tissues. This will allow for greater force and stretch to cause a tear.
2. 3.
A key component to good health is the ability to smoothly move your joints throughout your full ROM.
The following are basic principles for stretching
1. Before you start stretching, warm up
2. Stretch before & after exercise/sports
3. Stretch gently & slowly
4. 4.Don’t stretch beyond the point you feel tension, but do not reach the pain point.
Stretching is a great way to prevent injury
Research evidence is overwhelming.
Increased flexibility attended through stretching appears to result in decreased incidence of musculo-skeletal injuries, minimize & alleviate muscle soreness. The ability to stretch further may improve your athletic performance.
3. Taping & bracing:
Taping and bracing are used to restrict unrestricted, potentially harmful motion & allow desired motion. There are two main indicators for use of tapes & braces:
1. Prevention- Apart from the two above procedures, taping is used as a preventive measure in high-risk sports. Example: Basketballers may have their ankles tapped.
2. rehabilitation- taping is used as a protective mechanism during the healing & rehabilitation phase.
4. Protective equipments:
Protective gear protects vital organs from injury. Most importantly, protective gear must not hinder sporting activities.
5. Proper biomechanics
Proper biomechanics plays an essential role in the prevention and improvement of injury. Bad biomechanics can result in either functional (functional) or static abnormalities.
Here are some examples:
Static abnormalities: LLD. Genu Valgum. pronated calcium.
Dynamic abnormalities include running with an excessive anterior pelvic tilt.
What happens if there are altered biomechanics
Bad biomechanics is the cause of poor technique. Poor technique can lead to injuries and reduced performance.
6. Suitable equipments:
The equipment can be simple or complex.
The sports shoe is an example of simple equipment.
Some examples of complicated equipments include motor vehicles, sticks, racquets, bikes, and bicycles.
According to Khan & Brukner 3 major injury producers are- foot wares, racquets & bicycles.
The heel counter, toebox, and midsole are all parts of a sport shoe.
Parts of racquet: handle grip, shaft & racquet head
The most crucial parts of a bicycle are the seat height, saddle position and handle bear positions. Accidents can be avoided by learning how to pedal properly.
7. Appropriate surface:
During walking & running, the body is subjected to high-repetitive, short duration forces, increasing the susceptibility to injury. Maximum impact forces for running, walking and jumping have been found to be between 2 and 3-4 times.
The peak force to which the body is exposed during exercise can be affected by the surface. The maximum impact force is greater on hard surfaces than it is on soft ones. Softer surfaces are better for sports injuries.
8. Proper training
The most frequent factor that leads to the development of sports injuries is training errors.
Training is a constant balance between performing sufficient quality & quantity of work to maximize performance, but not so much that injury occurs.
This discussion is too long to cover all aspects of training.
In nutshell:
These are the principles of training
1. periodization
2. specificity
3. Overload
4. Individuality
Diverse training methods are available
1. Cardio training/endurance training
2. Anaerobic Training or Lactate Training
3. strength & power training
4. Flexibility training
5. speed & agility training
Specific skill training
8. Cross training
9. 9.
Adequate recovery is essential if the full training effect is to be gained & injuries are to be prevented
“Over-reaching”: inadequate recovery leads to impaired performance and associated symptoms such as tiredness & lethargy called “Over-reaching”. Injury may develop if continued training stops. However, athletes often respond to the above symptoms with an increase in their training. “lack of fitness”It is. This is what we call “over training syndrome”It is important to. It is therefore important that the coach closely monitors the training program.
An adequate recovery involves:
1. Warm down
2. whirl pools & spa
3. massage
4. rest & sleep
5. psychological & nutritional advices
10. Psychology & injury prevention:
Arousal to excess:
Excessive psychological arousal has a known negative effect. Athletes who are excessively stimulated psychologically can be at risk of injury.
Increased arousal results in altered muscle tension. This further leads to alteration of fine balance between agonist & antagonist which is the hall mark of a quality performance. Once this synergy is lost between agonist & antagonist; a changed technique rather than the natural technique is used. You can also “Loss of rhythm”It is possible to. This fact can lead to injury.
An excessive amount of arousal may also cause problems with mental concentration. Consequently the feet & body are placed do not get into proper position on the sports field. The participant is unable to perform return shots because of this. This can cause injury.
An excessive level of arousal can lead to “narrow attentional focus”That is why he cannot read the play. These may lead to them being easily tackled, or even bumped out of the theater. “blind side”
“The white line fever”This is an example of excessive arousal. This is when the athlete has lost all sense of danger and takes the field. He puts his body into positions that are vulnerable to injury.
A competition is not fair if over-aroused players are involved. Sports injuries can result from this.
The less commonly used form of under-arousal. You may see it in trials matches or competition at a lower level.
These are the results of an under aroused athlete
1. Visual cues that are difficult to read.
2. Slow decision-making
3. Avoid taking any evasive measures.
4. Technical errors made
The above points can cause injuries to athletes who are not sufficiently trained.
11. Nutrition & injury prevention:
1. Inadequate nutrition can indirectly cause injury by affecting the healing process.
2. Continuous intense training results in the release of labile muscles proteins into gluco-neogenesis, which produces energy. Insufficient dietary protein could lead to damage of soft tissues.
3. Inadequate hydration has immediate & acute impact on athletic performance especially exercising under thermal challenge.
4. In muscle contraction physiology, minerals such as calcium play an important role. Exercise increases the use of calcium in the body. A low calcium intake can lead to bone fractures. Electrolyte balance; further the internal milieu is maintained by Sodium & Potassium. A deficiency in these minerals may cause serious metabolic impairments. These minerals can even lead to death.
5. The low-calorie diet could lead to the loss of monthly periods by reducing fat. This can also lead to osteoporosis, fractures, and other health problems.