Sports Conditioning and Injury Prevention

By Bruce Cohn
Concord Journal, June, 2001
 
The role of fitness conditioning in improving a young athlete’s performance in sports has been discussed at great length. Previous columns have addressed the importance and benefits of improving speed, explosive power, strength, agility and flexibility through training. But there is another benefit to an appropriate strength and conditioning program and that is in the area of injury prevention.

An effective injury prevention program takes several factors into account. These include but are not limited to the strength and flexibility of the muscles supporting a joint, the neuromuscular control of joints during movement and the coordination of muscles during complex sport-specific movements. Specific exercises and drills to improve these conditioning components should be combined with torso training to help the young athlete avoid injuries.

All of these conditioning components come into play when considering two of the more common sports injury sites: the knees and shoulders. Young athletes must be instructed in a strength program that emphasizes balancing the muscles on each side of the joint. For the knee, this means that the muscles on the back of the thigh should have 60-80% of the strength of the muscles on the front of the thigh. To avoid shoulder problems, equal emphasis must be placed on developing the small muscles of the rotator cuff that are often injured in throwing and overhead sports. Flexibility of these muscle groups must also be emphasized to avoid reducing the range of motion in these joints and increasing injury potential. Plyometrics, explosive jumping and throwing exercises, are used to train muscle groups to coordinate their contractions and thereby reduce the likelihood of placing a joint in an injury-prone position. Balance and agility drills help young athletes train opposing muscle groups to work together and develop a sense of body alignment.

While there is no guarantee for avoiding injuries during sports participation, research and experience has shown us that with a little hard work the risks can be reduced.

Bruce Cohn is the Strength and Conditioning Coach at the Middlesex School in Concord. He runs FIT-TO-GO Total Sports Conditioning and is a nationally certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. Bruce can be reached at 781-316-0061 or brucegym@rcn.com.