Injury prevention and rehabilitation Flashcards
(42 cards)
What is an acute injury?
It occurs suddenly during exercise or competition, for example, a sprained ankle or torn ligament.
Pain is felt straight away and is often severe.
What are the symptoms of an acute injury?
Sudden, severe pain.
Swelling around the injured site.
Not being able to bear weight.
Restricted movement.
Extreme leg or arm weakness.
A protruding bone or a joint that is visibly out of place.
What is a chronic injury?
It occurs after playing sport or doing exercise for a long time.
This type of injury develops slowly and can last a long time.
It is often ignored by performers, which makes the injury worse, causing more problems.
What are the symptoms of a chronic injury?
Pain when you compete or exercise.
A dull ache when you rest.
Swelling.
What is a fracture?
A break or crack in the bone, it can fracture in different ways:
A simple or closed fracture is a clean break to a bone that does not penetrate the skin or damage any surrounding tissue.
A compound or open fracture is when the soft tissue or skin has been damaged. This is more serious as there is a higher risk of infection.
What is a dislocation?
It happens when the ends of bones are forced out of position.
It occurs at joints and is very painful.
Often occur with a fall or contact with another player.
What is a strain?
Often called ‘pulled’ or ‘torn’ muscle, a strain occurs when the muscle fibres are stretched too far and tear.
Regularly occur from contact with other players and where the performer continually accelerates and decelerates suddenly.
If the intensity of training is too high and the overuse of specific muscle groups.
What is a sprain?
Sprains occur to ligaments when they are stretched too far.
Ligaments are strong bands of tissue around joints that join bone to bone.
When playing sport where there is lots of twisting and turning, and excessive force is applied to a joint, a sprain can occur.
What are tendons?
They connect muscle to bone and are strong bands of soft tissue.
When muscles contract they help to move the bones and joints.
What is Achilles tendonitis?
Tendonitis causes pain and inflammation of the tendon.
The Achilles tendon is located at the back of the ankle and is the largest tendon in the body.
It connects the gastrocnemius to the heel bone and is used for walking, running and jumping, so when you do a lot of regular activity it can be prone to tendonitis.
What are stress fractures?
They are most common in the weight-bearing bones of the legs, often when there is an increase in the amount of exercise or intensity of activity rises too quickly.
They happen when the muscles become fatigued and so are no longer able to absorb the added shock of exercise.
The fatigued muscle eventually transfers the stress overload to the bone and the result is a tiny crack called a stress fracture. The area becomes tender and swollen.
What is tennis elbow?
It occurs in the muscles attached to the elbow that are used to straighten the wrists.
The muscles and tendons become inflamed and tiny tears occur on the outside of the elbow. The area becomes very sore and tender.
Any activity that places repeated stress on the elbow through overuse of the muscles and tendons of the forearm can cause tennis elbow.
How can screening prevent injury?
It can be used to identify those at risk of complications from exercise, prepare performers for their sport, enhance performance and reduce injury.
It can be used to detect a problem early before any symptoms occur.
Screening can also save lives, for example may young elite performers have CRY (cardio risk in the young) heart screening.
How can screening prevent injury in professional sport?
It involves assessing muscle imbalances, core strength, range of joint movements, postural alignment and mobility.
If any problems are detected, a conditioner can select a specific training programme for improvement thus reducing the chance of a potential injury while at the same time enhancing performance.
What are the disadvantages of screening?
Some screening tests are not 100% accurate and may miss a problem (false negative) or can either identify a problem that doesn’t exist (false positive).
It can also increase anxiety when an athlete finds out they have a health problem or are more susceptible to injury.
How does protective equipment prevent injury?
The correct equipment reduces injury in sport.
This equipment needs to fit correctly and follow NGB regulations.
Shin and ankle pads.
Scrum cap, gum shield, body armour.
How is active stretching used in injury prevention?
Active stretching occurs when a stretched position is held by contraction of an agonist muscle.
E.g. lifting your leg up and holding it in position. The tension in the hip flexors caused by holding the leg up in the air helps to relax the antagonist muscles being stretched.
How is passive, static and ballistic stretching used to prevent injury?
Passive stretching occurs with the help of an external force, such as another part of your body, a partner or a wall.
Static stretching is when the muscle is held in a stationary position for 30 seconds or more.
Ballistic stretching involves performing a stretch with swinging or bouncing movements to push a body part even further and should be performed by an individual who is extremely flexible.
What is taping?
Taping a weak joint can help with support and stability to reduce the risk of injury.
Taping can also be used on muscle. Kinesiology tape is used on muscles because it is more elastic than the tape used on joints.
It is applied directly to the skin to provide controlled support, as it expands as the muscle contracts.
What is bracing?
It is much more substantial than taping and often involves hinged supports.
It is used to give extra stability to muscles and joints that are weak or have been previously injured.
What is proprioception?
A subconscious process using a system of receptor nerves located in the muscles, joints and tendons.
For smooth, co-ordinated movements, the brain needs to have an accurate knowledge of arm and leg position and how fast these parts are moving.
Proprioceptors deliver vital information, but following injury, it is impaired.
How is proprioceptive training used in injury rehabilitation?
It uses hopping, jumping and balance exercises to restore lost proprioception and teach the body to control the position of an injured joint subconsciously.
What is an example of proprioceptive training?
A balance board is unpredictable and wobbles, so standing on one with an injured ankle strengthens the joint and at the same time re-educates the body to quickly react to the wobbly movements without thinking about it.
How is strength training used in injury rehabilitation?
Strength training uses a resistance of some kind, for example weight machines or free weights, body weight or the use of thera-bands.
It prepares the body for exercise, reducing the risk of injury.
