Posted on May 17, 2017 by Jenny Cromack
The biggest frustration with any type of exercise or performance is injury. As a personal trainer there is nothing worse than when your client picks up an injury. Injury occurs when the load applied to a tissue exceeds its failure tolerance (Bartlett, 1999). When we talk about injury we can categorise them into 2: Chronic Injury (overuse) and Acute Injury (traumatic).
Chronic injuries are a result from repeated overloads with insufficient time for recovery.
Acute injuries result from a single or a few repeated episodes.
Which Factors Contribute To Injury?
- Load characteristics
- Materials properties
- Genetics, Age, Gender
- Fitness level
- Skill level
- Fatigue
- Surfaces and equipment
An interesting point is that although overtraining may result in injury it is not always the key factor. Often psychological factors play a part: boredom and burnout!
This injury workout is going to have two benefits, it can be used to help rehab after a lower extremity injury. It can also be used as a prehab workout (preventing injury before it occurs).
When you are training specific to prevent injury your training aims should be 3-fold:
– Increase muscle-tendon stiffness (e.g. through plyometric training)
– Develop muscle strength (not necessarily size)
– Increase the size of important tendons (through strength training, endurance training) and this will make injuries less likely.
Complete a full warm-up protocol prior to starting your session
Injury Workout
1 Bulgarian Split Squat (DB opposite arm) × 8 × 4
2 Hip Thrusters (barbell) × 8 × 4
3 Single Leg RDL × 8e/leg × 4
4 Nordic Hamstrings × 3 × 3
5 Swiss ball kicks × 30s × 3
6 Banded YTW × 8e/arm × 3
*Trunk work is always a good idea
This injury workout is very basic and simple, but follows the 3 principles mentioned above, make sure you keep varying your training so you don’t get burnt out either.