Preventing Injuries: Mission Impossible

I used to believe that injury prevention was possible. But after over a decade of working with people and athletes of all backgrounds, I’ve come to understand that injury can be an expected byproduct of human existence, let alone a sporty life. Fortunately, there are measures that we can take to manage these risks and improve our athletic longevity.

An unnecessary injury is one that could be considered as possibly avoidable. As it is helpful to understand the different ways that people tend to find themselves hurt, we will broadly divide these mechanisms of injury into two categories: contact and non-contact.

A contact injury is when someone has physical contact with an outside force. This could be a collision with another person, falling onto the ground, a blow from a piece of equipment, etc. Arguably, this is the harder of the two categories to avoid, but there are still training tools that can decrease negative outcomes. A non-contact injury is the exact opposite; the injury occurs without the physical interaction of an outside object. A common example would be a soccer player sustaining an ACL injury while pivoting or performing a cutting maneuver. No one touched them, but they still got hurt.

We can further organize injuries as acute, chronic, and overuse. These terms help classify an injury based on the length of time that a person may be dealing with it. Acute means it just happened and is oftentimes traumatic, such as a fracture or dislocation. A chronic injury has lasted for a longer period, with most resources citing three months as the minimum. This could look like low-back pain that’s gone on for months, or even years. Overuse injuries are harder to spot, as they come on more slowly. They are caused through repetitive movements that create micro-traumas to the affected tissues. Overuse injuries are commonly seen in runners, swimmers, and employees who perform repetitive actions, such as assembly line workers. 

While injury is a risk of sport participation, each of the injury types listed above has the potential to be prevented, or even treated through specific types of training. Two particularly successful methods are resistance training and plyometric training. Resistance training is any form of physical activity that uses resistance to build strength, endurance, and muscle mass. It has been shown as an effective means to strengthen muscular and connective tissue, improve joint stability, enhance neuromuscular control, and increase bone density. Free weights, machines, resistance bands, and even one’s own body weight can be used. Plyometric training, or “jump training”, is a type of exercise technique used to boost power, speed, and agility. Like resistance training, it has also been shown to improve muscular strength and endurance, joint stability, and bone density. Plyometric training also helps to improve an athlete’s power. 

Although resistance and plyometric training are excellent tools, for them to truly be effective they must be dosed strategically. Training dose considers the amount and type of training completed, the effort at which it was performed at, how long was it done for, and at what frequency. Essentially how much, how hard, and how often. Dose-response is the tipping point at which something changes based on, you guessed it, the dosage prescribed. By manipulating the variables of time, intensity, frequency, reps, sets, etc., we can alter the response to training. 

When looking to begin a training program aimed to prevent or rehabilitate injury, seek out a licensed or certified professional to help you formulate a plan. At the very least, thoroughly research training modalities and volume prescriptions through reputable sources. Remember, injury may not be completely unavoidable, but there are still things you can do to stay durable.