Monitoring the effect of football match congestion on hamstring strength and lower limb flexibility: Potential for secondary injury prevention?

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 14-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Wollin ◽  
Kristian Thorborg ◽  
Tania Pizzari
2016 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  

The human foot is a flexible structure characterized by a pronounced medial longitudinal arch (MLA) that compresses and recoils during running. That process is actively driven by the intrinsic foot muscles and requires a proper stability of the MLA. This introduces the concept of foot core stability. Because the intrinsic foot muscles are often neglected by clinicians and researchers, the purpose of this article is to provide some guidelines for incorporating foot core training in prevention or rehabilitation programmes for runners. The intrinsic foot muscles play a key role in postural control and maintain balance during single leg stance by controlling the height of the MLA and the foot pronation. During running, these muscles lengthen eccentrically during the absorption phase and subsequently shorten as the arch recoils during the propulsive phase, functioning in parallel to the plantar fascia. As a consequence, the dysfunction or weakness of the MLA active support may lead to injuries (e.g. plantar fasciopathy, Achilles or Tibialis posterior tendinopathy, metatarsalgia or medial tibial stress syndrome), due to numerous biomechanical cascades and mechanisms. In order to counteract or prevent these impairments, there are two ways for enhancing the foot core stability. Firstly in terms of volitional control of the intrinsic foot muscles, the “short foot exercise” must be practiced. Secondly strengthening sessions using neuromuscular electrical stimulation of these muscles seem to be a promising strategy in order to support the MLA and control the pronation during running. Practically, the foot core strengthening protocol may beneficiate not only the runners affected by excessive pronation related injuries but also those who sustained a long term lower limb injury and may be affected by a detraining process. In addition we warmly recommend integrating this protocol in any lower limb injury prevention programme or strength and conditioning plan for runners.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Narelle Hall ◽  
Maria Constantinou ◽  
Mark Brown ◽  
Belinda Beck ◽  
Suzanne Kuys

ABSTRACT Introduction Army recruit injuries occurring during basic training can lead to high personal and organizational burdens potentially threatening deployment capability. Previous military surveillance describing recruit injury as defined by physical therapy presentations is limited to 1-year duration or includes only male infantry recruits or trained personnel. Research describing injury incidence and trends specific to New Zealand Army basic training recruits over a longer period will better inform future injury prevention programs. Aims To identify the incidence and patterns of injuries reported from physical therapy presentations for New Zealand Army recruits undertaking basic training over a 4-year period. Materials and Methods This retrospective observational study identified injuries from physical therapy service presentations in New Zealand Army recruits from 2008 to 2011. All male and female New Zealand Army recruits who presented to physical therapy, following medical triage, were included. Recruit physical therapy presentations for injury and respiratory and other conditions were collated. Injury incidence was grouped by body region (upper limbs, lower limbs, and combined spinal regions) and site (joint or segment), and cumulative and injury incidence rates were calculated. Results One thousand eight hundred and ninety-six (1,697 males and 199 females) New Zealand Army recruits commenced basic training between 2008 and 2011. One thousand six hundred and eighty-three physical therapy presentations occurred for recruit injury during New Zealand Army basic training over 4 years. Lower limb injuries accounted for over 75% (n = 1,285) of the overall demand for physical therapy service during recruit basic training. Injuries sustained at the knee and below accounted for 67% of all reported injury presentations. Conclusion Four years of injury surveillance using physical therapy presentations identified the lower limb, with the knee and below as the most commonly injured regions in New Zealand Army recruits. Injury prevention interventions for New Zealand Army recruits should aim to reduce lower limb injuries. Future research on injury surveillance would benefit from incorporating clear injury and severity definitions, established injury classification systems, and standardized incidence calculations.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Alejandro Javaloyes ◽  
Manuel Mateo-March ◽  
Felipe P. Carpes ◽  
Manuel Moya-Ramon ◽  
Raúl Lopez-Grueso ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND: Pedalling asymmetries are a topic of interest to cycling coaches and athletes due to a potential link with performance and injury prevention. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to describe the bilateral asymmetry of professional cyclists during two editions of a Grand Tour. METHODS: Here we set out to determine the power balance (power produced by each lower limb) between stronger and weaker leg (dominant vs. non-dominant) of 12 UCI professional cyclists competing at two Giro d’Italia editions. Power data were recorded during competition stages. Further analysis considered power data clustered into individual intensity zones (from Z1 to Z7). RESULTS: Higher intensity elicited better power balance (lower asymmetry) regardless of the stage profile. Intensity distribution analysed according to the role of the cyclist was lower for climbers in Z2 (p= 0.006) and Z7 (p= 0.002) and higher in Z5 (p= 0.023) compared to team helpers. Power balance ranged from 0 to 9 % across the different athletes. CONCLUSIONS: Increase in power output improves power balance, especially in team helpers, and the lower power balance at lower exercise intensities, which are most of the race time, may elicit significant cumulative loading on a given leg of the cyclists, which requires further attention regarding risks of overuse injury.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Nicholas C. Clark ◽  
Elaine M. Mullally

Context: Single- versus double-leg landing events occur the majority of the time in a netball match. Landings are involved in large proportions of netball noncontact knee injury events. Of all landing-induced anterior cruciate ligament injuries, most occur during single-leg landings. Knowledge of whether different single-leg functional performance tests capture the same or different aspects of lower-limb motor performance will therefore inform clinicians’ reasoning processes and assist in netball noncontact knee injury prevention screening. Objective: To determine the correlation between the triple hop for distance (THD), single hop for distance (SHD), and vertical hop (VH) for the right and left lower limbs in adult female netball players. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Local community netball club. Participants: A total of 23 players (age 28.7 [6.2] y; height 171.6 [7.0] cm; mass 68.2 [9.8] kg). Interventions: There were 3 measured trials (right and left) for THD, SHD, and VH, respectively. Main Outcome Measures: Mean hop distance (percentage of leg length [%LL]), Pearson intertest correlation (r), and coefficient of determination (r2). Results: Values (right and left; mean [SD]) were as follows: THD, 508.5 (71.8) %LL and 510.9 (56.7) %LL; SHD, 183.4 (24.6) %LL and 183.0 (21.5) %LL; and VH, 21.3 (5.2) %LL and 20.6 (5.0) %LL. All correlations were significant (P ≤ .05), r/r2 values (right and left) were THD–SHD, .91/.83 and .87/.76; THD–VH, .59/.35 and .51/.26; and SHD–VH, .50/.25 and .37/.17. A very large proportion of variance (76%–83%) was shared between the THD and SHD. A small proportion of variance was shared between the THD and VH (25%–35%) and SHD and VH (17%–25%). Conclusion: The THD and SHD capture highly similar aspects of lower-limb motor performance. In contrast, the VH captures aspects of lower-limb motor performance different to the THD or SHD. Either the THD or the SHD can be chosen for use within netball knee injury prevention screening protocols according to which is reasoned as most appropriate at a specific point in time. The VH, however, should be employed consistently alongside rather than in place of the THD or SHD.


Author(s):  
Robin Mawson ◽  
Michael J Creech ◽  
Devin C Peterson ◽  
Forough Farrokhyar ◽  
Olufemi R Ayeni

Author(s):  
Carla van der Merwe ◽  
Sarah P. Shultz ◽  
G. Robert Colborne ◽  
Philip W. Fink

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