Injury prevention is an athlete’s dream – Imagine being able to do what we love – exercise, sport, outdoor activities – without injury. How can we achieve this? Read on to find out…!
Some of the activities that most people think about when they hear injury prevention are:
Stretching (static or dynamic)
Mobility
Strapping and taping
Ice baths
Saunas
Manual Therapy/Treatment
Resistant training
Load management/rest
However, the short answer to the question “can we prevent injury?” is – probably not. Injuries happen as a part of life and the activities in which we participate. The use of the word “prevention” is misguided and a more appropriate term for what we are trying to achieve is injury risk reduction.
So what actually helps with injury risk reduction? The answer isn’t black and white, so we created a hierarchy of what is more important and what is not, summarized in a pyramid.
Load management, rest and the necessity of an adequate diet
Of all the activities that we can do to prevent injury these should be considered first, but unfortunately they are frequently ignored, and people tend to opt for things such as ice baths, spa, and stretching and believe that is enough – it isn’t!
While the other modalities of injury risk reduction have both positive and negative outcomes, in clinical trials appropriate load management, rest and recovery show relatively more consistency in injury risk reduction. Load management is appropriate and adequate training, with scheduled rest to provide a stimulus for adaptation to performance, muscle strength and capacity. However over- training and consistently training to failure can cause a negative effect in adaptations, hence create an increase in injury risk.
Image taken from: Gabbett TJ The training—injury prevention paradox: should athletes be training smarter and harder?British Journal of Sports Medicine 2016;50:273-280.
The above graph is a hypothesized training program in respect to training load and the factors that coaches and trainers are trying to affect. As seen in the graph, finding the optimal relationship with training and rest can not only reduce the risk of injury but increase overall performance.
Nutritional considerations should also be taken into account. While everyone pays attention to adequate protein intake, other nutritional factors such as OMEGA-3, antioxidants, collagen, calcium, Vitamins C and D and many more should also be factored in. This is especially important to people who train regularly – from amateur to professional level.
How can the Ascot Vale Osteopathy help you? Other than helping by relieving sore muscles and the tight sensation you may be experiencing, we can help you with modifying workload/ exercise load, provide resistance exercises and help by educating you further on what else you can do. By simply introducing and creating an injury risk reduction plan within your training program, we can create further awareness of your own body and this can significantly reduce injury risk.
Resistant training
No matter the sport, soccer, football, combat sports, running, athletics etc. Some form of resistance training should be part of your training program. By increasing strength and muscle capacity we can in turn reduce the risk of injury.
Stretching, Ice baths etc.
It is common practice to stretch before and after exercise as a way of cooling down and reducing the risk of injury. BUT DID YOU KNOW? Recent studies have shown that those who regularly stretch compared to those who didn’t had no significant differences in injury rate, further that a greater thought and time should be spent on load management and other important factors that have a far greater impact on injury reduction.
Even once we’ve taken into consideration all of this information, sometimes we still lack the knowledge and understanding of when and why some injuries occur, even for those individuals who are strict with their injury risk reduction programs. Sometimes stuff just happens. And that’s why Ascot Vale Osteopathy is here: to help you through any of your injuries and get you back on track to doing the things you love, as quickly as possible.
Turnagöl, H. H., Ko?ar, ?. N., Güzel, Y., Aktitiz, S., & Atakan, M. M. (2021). Nutritional Considerations for Injury Prevention and Recovery in Combat Sports. Nutrients, 14(1), 53. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14010053
Soomro N, Sanders R, Hackett D, et al. The Efficacy of Injury Prevention Programs in Adolescent Team Sports: A Meta-analysis. The American Journal of Sports Medicine. 2016;44(9):2415-2424. doi:10.1177/0363546515618372
Dijksma, I., Arslan, I.G., van Etten-Jamaludin, F.S., Elbers, R.G., Lucas, C. and Stuiver, M.M. (2020), Exercise Programs to Reduce the Risk of Musculoskeletal Injuries in Military Personnel: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Injury, Function and Rehabilitation, 12: 1028-1037. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmrj.12360
Jiang Z, Hao Y, Jin N, Li Y. A Systematic Review of the Relationship between Workload and Injury Risk of Professional Male Soccer Players. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022; 19(20):13237. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013237
Gabbett TJ The training—injury prevention paradox: should athletes be training smarter and harder?British Journal of Sports Medicine 2016;50:273-280.
Nuzzo J. L. (2020). The Case for Retiring Flexibility as a Major Component of Physical Fitness. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 50(5), 853–870. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-019-01248-w
The knee joint is the largest joint in the human body and is also quite a complex one, as it is actually made up of 2 joints. There are 3 bones that form these two joints. They are the femur (thigh bone), tibia (shin bone) and the patella (knee cap). The ...
The body’s aim is to remain balanced. The official term for this is allostasis: the ability we have to maintain stability through an ever changing environment. It is not just the external environment we need to ...
Our modern society and the advancements of technology have led most of us towards a more sedentary lifestyle. Throughout the COVID-19 lockdown, the majority of the population were getting up out of bed, walking to the lounge room/study/kitchen table, sitt...
Pain has been a huge topic for discussion for a long time now. Nearly everyone feels it (I say ‘nearly’ because there is actually a very small minority of people with a special condition that does not allow them to feel pain), and it varies in charact...
Chronic pain syndrome is a complex multifactorial disease that affects 1 in 5 Australians over the age of 45. It is the third largest disease burden (surpassed by cancer and cardiovascular disease), and costs approximately ...
Pain is an unpleasant, subjective experience which is associated with actual or potential tissue damage. Physiologically, pain is critical for survival, but when pain starts to affect our quality of life, we ask, “how do I get rid of this feeling?”. W...
In most people’s lives, there comes a point in time where a certain part of your body will hurt. The pain may be caused by trauma or it may present insidiously. Some will ignore the pain until it disappears, others will t...
Psoas is a strong and powerful muscle, yet often overlooked, and tt can be responsible for a host of ailments.
The Psoas muscle originates from the T12 and Lumbar spinal segments, where it blends in with fibers of the diaphragm (your primary breathing ...
Osteopathy is a holistic approach to the body that considers the interconnectedness of the body's muscles, joints and systems. Typically adults are the ones getting treated, but at Ascot Vale Osteopathy, we treat children f...
Websites store cookies to enhance functionality and personalise your experience. You can manage your preferences, but blocking some cookies may impact site performance and services.
Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.
Name
Description
Duration
Cookie Preferences
This cookie is used to store the user's cookie consent preferences.
30 days
These cookies are needed for adding comments on this website.
Name
Description
Duration
comment_author
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
comment_author_email
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
comment_author_url
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
Google reCAPTCHA helps protect websites from spam and abuse by verifying user interactions through challenges.
Name
Description
Duration
_GRECAPTCHA
Google reCAPTCHA sets a necessary cookie (_GRECAPTCHA) when executed for the purpose of providing its risk analysis.
179 days
Google Tag Manager simplifies the management of marketing tags on your website without code changes.
Name
Description
Duration
cookiePreferences
Registers cookie preferences of a user
2 years
td
Registers statistical data on users' behaviour on the website. Used for internal analytics by the website operator.
session
Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us understand how visitors use our website.
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that tracks and analyzes website traffic for informed marketing decisions.
ID used to identify users for 24 hours after last activity
24 hours
_gat
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests when using Google Tag Manager
1 minute
_gac_
Contains information related to marketing campaigns of the user. These are shared with Google AdWords / Google Ads when the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked together.
90 days
__utma
ID used to identify users and sessions
2 years after last activity
__utmt
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests
10 minutes
__utmb
Used to distinguish new sessions and visits. This cookie is set when the GA.js javascript library is loaded and there is no existing __utmb cookie. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
30 minutes after last activity
__utmc
Used only with old Urchin versions of Google Analytics and not with GA.js. Was used to distinguish between new sessions and visits at the end of a session.
End of session (browser)
__utmz
Contains information about the traffic source or campaign that directed user to the website. The cookie is set when the GA.js javascript is loaded and updated when data is sent to the Google Anaytics server
6 months after last activity
__utmv
Contains custom information set by the web developer via the _setCustomVar method in Google Analytics. This cookie is updated every time new data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
2 years after last activity
__utmx
Used to determine whether a user is included in an A / B or Multivariate test.
18 months
_ga
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gali
Used by Google Analytics to determine which links on a page are being clicked
30 seconds
Marketing cookies are used to follow visitors to websites. The intention is to show ads that are relevant and engaging to the individual user.
Google Maps is a web mapping service providing satellite imagery, real-time navigation, and location-based information.
Share this news article online