Tip January 2004

Avoiding Injury

Are you concerned about trying to minimize your chances of training injuries?
Some studies have suggested that injury rates could be reduced by up to 25% if athletes took appropriate preventative action.

Injury Factors

1) The first predictor of injury is if you have been injured before, you are much more likely to get hurt than a student who has been injury free. Regular exercises have a way of uncovering the weak areas of the body. If you have knees that are put under heavy stress because of your unique biomechanics during exercises, your knees are likely to hurt when you engage in your activity for a prolonged time. After recovery, if you reestablish your desired training load without modification to your biomechanics, then your knees are likely to be injured again.

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

3) Some studies have shown that students who display strong psychological tendencies eg. aggressive, tense, and compulsive, etc. have a higher risk of injury than their relaxed peers. Tension may make muscles and tendons tighter, increasing the risk that they will be harmed during workouts.

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

5) Resistance training can fortify muscles and make them less susceptible to damage, especially if the strength building exercises involve movements that are similar to those associated with the martial art or activity. Time should be devoted to developing a specific resistance training regimen for the muscle groups, appropriate to the demands of your activity.

Injury Prevention Tips

1. Avoid training when you are tired.
2. Increase your consumption of carbohydrate during periods of heavy training.
3. Increase in training should be matched with increases in resting.
4. Any increase in training load should be preceded by an increase in strengthening.
5. Treat even seemingly minor injuries very carefully to prevent them becoming a big problem.
6. If you experience pain when training, STOP your training session immediately.
7. Never train hard if you are stiff from the previous effort.
8. Introduce new activities gradually.
9. Allow lots of time for warming up and cooling down.
10. Carefully checkout any training and competition courses before hand that you wish to try.