One of the main reasons for sports injuries is failing to warm up correctly . . . or at all
AFTER MICHAEL Curruth and Wayne McCullough won their gold and silver medals in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, boxing clubs and gyms were full of men hoping to emulate their heroes. Following the heroics of Kenny Egan and company in China, boxing clubs are probably getting ready for another deluge of new members.
Full clubs and gyms in August are unusual, so it indicates just how inspiring international events such as the Olympics are in getting potatoes off their couches and away from their TV to participate in sports rather than just watching them.
And it's not just the Olympics - a new premiership season will lead to more men playing soccer, while the last rugby world cup saw a spike in the numbers taking up rugby. While increased participation in sport is always welcome, it can bring its own problems - an increase in sports injuries among the unfit, under-prepared and over-enthusiastic.
"Whenever there is a global sporting event, you can see an increase in the work that is coming in," says Lorcan Twomey, who runs the Pain Relief and Sports Injuries Clinic in Dublin.
"There were examples of guys after the last rugby world cup who hadn't played rugby in years, and they were all gung-ho and ready to go out and play rugby afterwards, and they ended up tearing their hamstrings straight off the bone."
For some, it meant hospitalisation and months off work.
Due to a higher level of participation of men in sport, male sports injuries outstrip those of women by a margin of three to one, although there has been a rise in injuries among women involved in middle distance running, mini-marathons and triathlons.
"While the demographic of people involved in sport is changing, men still tend to be involved in higher-risk sports and contact injuries would be higher from that point of view," says Dr Eanna Falvey of the Sports Surgery Clinic in Santry, Dublin.
Inadequate preparation, under-estimation of fitness required for particular sports, lack of conditioning, tiredness and previous injuries are key reasons behind injuries among those involved in recreational sport, he says.
"When your conditioning is down, you are predisposed to muscle tears or actually injuring yourself," explains Falvey. "If you don't play soccer regularly, you are more likely to have a soccer-related injury, just because you are not set up directly for the sport at that point in time.
"Fatigue is a big issue. Fatigued muscles are more likely to tear or to strain, and basically a large factor in a lot of injures of people who play recreationally is that they come out under-conditioned, either tired or without having eaten properly in the course of the day, so you have tired, fatigued muscles from that and you get a muscle or tendon issue in that scenario."
While conditioning is a huge factor, as well as the playing environment such as the state of the pitch or weather conditions, one of the single biggest risk factor that stands out in all the studies that have been done on this area over time is previous injury. "Previous injury predisposes you to more injury," says Falvey.
While there is always a risk of injury, especially in contact sports, there are ways to keep sustaining injuries to a minimum.
One of the greatest reasons for injuries is failing to warm up correctly, or at all.
Preparation is key, according to both Twomey and Falvey. Recently, there has been some controversy about the benefits of stretching - a controversial study a few years ago claimed that stretching may predispose sports people to injury in its own right.
But Falvey says properly executed stretching should not be dismissed. "It is generally accepted that warm-up and sports specific stretching is beneficial in whatever sport you're involved in, particularly so-called explosive sports," he says.
While many organised sports, such as football and hurling played through clubs, provide coaches and supervised training, a key problem is that many recreational sports, whether it is five-a-side soccer, tennis or golf, are largely unsupervised.
Twomey is also critical of gyms, some of which he says don't provide proper supervision. An over-concentration on bulking up and getting people as fit as possible, as soon as possible can eventually destroy posture, he says.
"It very much depends on where you are going, and certainly the more reputable the gym, the more input you will get," explains Falvey. "Most of the more modern reputable gyms nowadays insist you see somebody prior to starting, and you have regular feedback when you are starting off and I think that's the way it should be."
The Sports Surgery Clinic offers a fitness screening programme, much along the lines of a health screening programme, to help people determine their level of fitness prior to taking up a sport and also to help them find a sport most suitable for them.
Outside of breaks and fractures, the majority of injuries - 70 per cent - tend to be muscle injuries. "Hamstrings and calf tears are extremely common, and again they come down to poor preparation and conditioning," says Falvey.
"Conditioning and preparation would save a lot of people a lot of trouble."
Key steps to personal training
Anybody can join a gym and start pumping iron and building up the body, but there is a right and a wrong way to train, according to Lorcan Twomey.
"What is the point of having the physique of a bodybuilder or the flexibility of a performance artist, if you can't even run 100 metres without gasping for air?"
According to Twomey, the six key steps for looking good, feeling good, and building stamina are:
• Good cardiovascular exercises
• Good nutrition/diet
• Good fluid intake
• A relaxed atmosphere - in that the mind must be healthy before the body can react. The old saying is 'healthy body healthy mind', but it works both ways.
• Good flexibility is very important for the recovery time of over-training and injured muscle tissue
You can then start to hit the weights.
HITTING THE WEIGHTS
Basically you can hit the weights, but not before learning the proper techniques and posture with light weights, for example 2kg. The body is all about balance, and if your technique is wrong you will put the body out of alignment, causing muscle-skeletal discomfort.