Why do distance athletes develop pain frequently?

Today, we came across an interesting study.

Why do athletes often get hurt?

The purpose of the study was to identify possible links between training load, baseline characteristics and new injuries/pain in endurance sports athletes.

In this research paper, 95 Athletes participated (cyclers, runners, swimmers, triathletes, etc)

The Findings: 

• Those who trained too much too fast would get injured more frequently.

• Injuries in the last 12 months were associated with higher odds of new injury.

Negative effects of acute training manifest in the week with a sudden spike in intensity/load (overload/fatigue). It may take 2 weeks or more for positive effects to happen(adaptation).

The Take Home message

1) Avoid high spikes in acute Training Load while maintaining high chronic training load.

2) Deal with old injuries accordingly as old injuries increase odd of new injuries.

3) Proper recover: sleep decreases odd of new injury by 51% (johnston et al)

4) Stress management: 32% increase in risk of new injury (johnston et al)

Remember guys, too much too fast is NEVER good. The body is highly adaptable, but needs TIME to adapt.

Happy training everyone!

Reference: training load and baseline characteristics associated with new injury ...johnston et al (2019)