Increase Recovery and Decrease Injury

Over 60% of all injuries suffered by athletes are one of the five types of musculoskeletal injuries:

OVERUSE

• Volume of training or competition at a high mechanical load is too high
• Commonly this manifests as stress fracture or tendinitis

OVER STIFF

• When the tendon is stiffer than the muscle is strong
• Commonly this manifests as muscle pulls

UNDER STIFF

• When a ligament is not stiff enough to prevent laxity
• Commonly this is seen in women who rupture their ACLs

IMBALANCE

• When there is a difference in strength or stiffness in the muscles across a joint
• Commonly this is seen in noncontact rupture of the ACL

TRAUMA

• When there is a traumatic injury to a bone, tendon, or joint
• Commonly seen in impact sports and are difficult to avoid

Practical Application

Loading to minimize musculoskeletal injury

• Consider incorporating protective or health sessions into training:
• Short (5 min.) sessions to target bone, cartilage and tendon
• Separate these from other training by 6hrs
• Incorporate slow/isometric movements to decrease tendon stiffness
• Split long training sessions into 2 separate training bouts to minimize fatigue-related injury

Use nutrition to support musculoskeletal adaptations

• Consider giving athletes gelatin or hydrolyzed collagen an hour before training or competition
• The rise in pro-collagen amino acids peaks one hour after taking a gelatin supplement
• 15g of gelatin taken one hour before 6 minutes of jump rope activity increases collagen synthesis in young males

Use rest wisely

• Inactivity can increase tendon stiffness (Arruda 2006)
• Therefore, following injury or breaks in training, slowly ramp up training load and intensity
• Complete rest is often not the answer. Intermittent periods of activity with 6-8 hours rest is often better (Robling 2000)