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Unit 4

Exercise-related Injuries

  • Most overuse injuries are the result of poor training technique or design.
  • Wearing a bicycle helmet decreases the risk of head injury during a crash by 63-85%

Injury Prevention

  1. Medical screening - to identify risk factors and get preventive measures.
  2. Appropriate equipment, footwear and clothing - helmet, joint and eye protection, activity specific shoes & clothes.
  3. Proper warm-up - specific to activity & conditions.
  4. Use common sense - listen to warning signs to avoid overtraining.

Common Exercise-Related Injuries

  • Microtrauma
    • results from cumulative repetitive stressor
  • Macrotrauma
    • results from an accident
    • fibers increase in cross-sectional area
    • metabolic changes

Signs & Symptoms of Inflammation

  • Pain
    • direct injury to nerve/pain receptors
  • Swelling
    • internal accumulation of blood
  • Local heat
    • increased metabolic activity
  • Redness
    • dilation of blood vessels
  • Loss of function
    • sprain, strain, fracture, swelling

Overuse Injuries

Injuries related to cumulative repetitive stress

  • Preventable
  • Inflammation
  • Manageable

Treatment classifications: graded 1-4 on severity (see text table 6.5)

Factors Contributing to Overuse Injuries

  • Excessive impact forces
  • Hard surfaces
  • Worn-out shoes
  • Dramatic changes in FITT
  • Inflexibility
  • Overtraining
  • Muscular imbalances

General Inflammatory Conditions

  • Plantar fasciitis
    • microtrauma of bottom of foot
  • Shin splints
    • irritation of bone/muscle of shin
  • Runner’s knee
    • abnormal patellar movement
  • Swimmer’s shoulder
    • impingement of joint structures

Tendonitis

  • Inflammation of a tendon resulting from overuse

Strains

  • Partial or complete tear of muscle or tendon fibers
  • Mild strain = delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS)

Sprains

  • Partial or complete tear of ligament fibers or joint capsule

Stress Fractures

  • Hairline fracture caused by repetitive forces

Treatment for Exercise-Related Injuries

R-I-C-E

  • Rest
    • eliminates irritation, further injury
  • Ice
    • swelling is caused by blood accumulation, ice promotes blood clotting
  • Compression
    • controls hemorrhaging
  • Elevation
    • limb above heart

Environmental Injuries

  • Hyperthermia
    • excessive core temp.
    • exercising in humid, warm weather
    • Heat cramps - loss of H2O, electrolytes
  • Heat exhaustion
    • cool clammy skin, fatigue, nausea, headache, goose bumps
  • Heat stroke
    • hot, dry, red skin, 20-70% mortality!

Caution with saunas & hot tubs!

Hypothermia

  • insufficient core body temperature
  • exercising in cold and/or windy, rainy weather
  • normal core temp = 99.6 degrees
  • shivering if core temp = 93 degrees
  • death if core temp = 75 - 80 degrees

Fluid Replacement

  • 800 ml/hour emptied from stomach
  • Fluid absorption improved by
    • cold temperature of fluid
    • continuous intake
    • movement
    • glucose (sugar) polymers
    • small amount of salt
  • “Hyperhydrate”- 20 oz. 10-20 min. before activity

 

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