Preventing Injuries through Fitness Training

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Preventing Injuries through Fitness Training
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Introduction

• Coaches and Athletic Trainers both recognize the
  importance of conditioning and training to
  prevent athletic injuries. However, it takes
  cooperation between everyone involved to
  gradually bring the athlete to a level of fitness
  that will prevent early season injuries. Both
  the coach and athletic trainer must understand
  the basic principles of TC.

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Concept of Periodization

• Definition - periodization is a concept which
  organizes the conditioning of the athlete into
  cycles or periods of need.
• Macrocycle - the complete training period.
• Mesocycle - a smaller period of time, usually
  weeks or months, within the total TC period.
• Preparatory Period - generally during the
  off-season
• Competition Period - training during competition
• Transition Period - during early part of
  off-season
• Cross Training - using alternative activities

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Principles of Conditioning

• Warm-up/Cool-down
• Motivation
• Overload
• Consistency
• Progression
• Intensity
• Specificity
• Individuality
• Minimize Stress
• Safety

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Flexibility

• It is generally accept that flexibility is an
  important component of injury prevention.
• essential for optimum athletic performance
• maintains health of joints
• allows for maximum range of motion about a joint
• helps decrease injuries to muscle, tendon,
  musculotendinous unit, joint surfaces, ligaments,
  joint capsule

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Flexibility

• Factors that Limit Flexibility
• bony structure (fracture of elbow)
• excessive fat
• muscle and tendon tension
• connective tissue
• These may all be normal reasons for reaching the
  end of a range of motion

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Flexibility

• Active and Passive Range of Motion(ROM)
• Active ROM - also called dynamic flexibility,
  where the athlete moves the joint.
• Passive ROM - also called static flexibility,
  where the joint is moved to its endpoints by
  someone else or with no muscle action.

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Stretching

• Background it is helpful to review the function
  of agonistic vs antagonistic muscles in the
  movement of a joint.
• Types of Stretching Techniques
• Ballistic stretching
• Static stretching
• PNF stretching

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Stretching

• Neurophysiologic Basis of Stretching
• Mechanoreceptors in the muscle inform nervous
  system of changes in muscle length and tension.
• Golgi tendon organs - sensitive to change in
  length and tension
• Muscle spindles - sensitive to changes in length
  - need prolonged stretch (6 sec) before reflexive
  contraction subsides and GTO responds with
  reflexive relaxation of the antagonistic muscles.
• The GTO can override the muscle spindles.

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Muscular Strength, Endurance, Power

• Importance of Muscular Strength/Endurance
• Muscular strength the ability of a muscle to
  generate force against some resistance.
• Muscular Power a large amount of force
  generated quickly
• Muscular Endurance the ability to perform
  repetitive muscular contractions against
  resistance for an extended period of time.
• These are all important in the design of a sport
  specific conditioning program and used in the
  reconditioning of the athlete after sustaining
  injury.

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Resistance Training Techniques

• The training program may incorporate exercises
  using different types of muscle contraction
• Isometric exercise - muscle contracts to a
  maximum force but there is no change in muscle
  length - hold contraction for ten seconds - often
  used in the early rehabilitation stages -
• isotonic contraction is either
• concentric (the muscle shortens through the joint
  range as the muscle contracts - function to
  accelerate movement), or
• eccentric (the muscle gradually lengthens
  throughout the contraction - function to
  decelerate motion).
• Eccentric exercise is more fatiguing because less
  motor units are required to achieve a certain
  force - this type of exercise is essential in
  reconditioning tendon injury. A training program
  which incorporates an eccentric strength
  component will help reduce injuries to the
  susceptible decelerating muscles.

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Resistance Training Techniques

• Isokinetic exercise - muscle length changes while
  contraction is performed at constant velocity
  (this method can only be done with a machine and
  is used for speed training - relies on the
  motivation of the individual to use maximum
  strength for each contraction)
• plyometric exercise - specific exercises that
  encompass a rapid stretch of a muscle
  eccentrically followed immediately by a rapid
  concentric contraction forceful explosive
  movement over a short period of time
• Must have a good strength base and technique to
  begin this type of exercise and must be
  incorporated into a rehabilitation program to
  prevent further injury.
• Progressive Resistance Exercise - based on the
  principles of progression and overload.

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Strength Development

• Physiology of Strength Development
• There have been a number of theories given to
  explain why or how a muscle hypertrophies in
  response to strength training, such as
• fibers split in response to training
• number of fibers is genetically determined and
  stay the same, but the number of capillaries is
  increased
• the muscles myofilaments increase in both size
  number, causing the fibers to increase in
  cross-sectional diameter
• Resistance Training Techniques Used
• The overload principle is the basis of all methods

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Strength Training Methods

• Isometric Exercise
• Progressive Resistive Exercise
• Isotonic Contractions
• Concentric Contractions
• Eccentric (Negative) Contractions
• Free Weights versus Machines
• Isokinetic Exercise
• Circuit Training
• Calisthenics Exercises
• Plyometrics
• Training the Female Athlete

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Cardiorespiratory Fitness

• Transport and Utilization of Oxygen
• Effects on the Heart
• Effects on Work Ability
• The Energy Systems
• Training Techniques for Cardio Endurance
• Methods and Equipment Used

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Summary

• Total body conditioning contributes to decreased
  injury and improved health