• (07) 5474 9093Book Now

Menu
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Vision / Mission
    • Alchemy News
    • Fee Structure
    • FAQ
  • Services
    • Physiotherapy
      • Pelvic Health
        • Women’s Health
        • Men’s Health
        • Kids & Teens
      • Pre and Postnatal Care
      • Sports Physiotherapy
      • Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy
    • Occupational Therapy
    • Massage Therapy
    • Group Classes
    • Studio & Room Hire
  • Team
  • Timetable
  • Resources
    • Factsheets
      • Men’s Health
      • Womens Health
      • Sports and Musculoskeletal
      • Kids and Teens
    • Alchemy TV
      • Telehealth
        • PHYSIOTHERAPY
        • – Pregnancy Physiotherapy
        • – Postnatal Physiotherapy
        • – Sports Physiotherapy
        • BOOKING TELEHEALTH
      • Sports & Musculoskeletal
        • HAMSTRING INJURIES
        • – Hamstring Anatomy
        • – Nordics for Hamstrings
        • – Hip Extension Strength
        • – High Speed Running
        • INJURY PREVENTION
        • SELF RELEASE STRATEGIES
        • – Gluteus Medius Release
        • – Thoracic Mobility
      • Men’s Health
      • Women’s Health
        • POSTNATAL
        • – Episiotomy Improvements
        • – Carrying a Baby Capsule
        • – Mastitis
        • – Prolapse & Exercise
      • General Physiotherapy
        • How to Find the Right Physio?
      • Exercise
        • ISOLIFE MINI SERIES
        • – Arm Exercises
        • – Leg Exercises
        • – Core Exercises
    • Alchemy VIP
    • Case Studies
      • Sports & Musculoskeletal
      • Womens Health
      • Mens Health
      • Kids & Teens Case Studies
    • Blog
  • Contact Us
  • (07) 5474 9093
  • Book Now

Returning an Athlete to Sport: Loading

  • Home
  • Returning An...

Returning an Athlete to Sport: Loading

CategoriesMusculoskeletal & Sports

Digital Insider

February 4, 2019

0

How best to return an athlete to sport following an injury is a common deliberation between Strength & Conditioning staff, the medical team, and athletes alike. The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) has released guidelines as to how to most safely return an athlete to full competition. To follow these guidelines, one first needs to understand a few key concepts. These include workload, the body’s adaptive potential, and rest.

 

Workload and Adaptive Potential

Workload is any stress the body undergoes during a specific activity. Some examples include tackling, running (distance or intensity), throwing/bowling, jumping, etc. The body’s adaptive potential is the body’s ability to adapt to a 10-20% increase in training load across a week. Increasing the load at a faster rate results in a greater risk of injury. Furthermore, increasing the load at a slower rate means that you are not taking full advantage of your ability to improve your skills and training capacity.

Rest

Rest is a vital part of recovery. Your body needs time to repair damaged tissues and improve new skills. These skills are necessary for injury prevention in the future.  In the past, research recommended that athletes have full rest from activity. This is to allow them time to heal. However, recent research now shows that while recovering, it is incredibly important to maintain as close to your full training workload as possible.  For example, if a runner is training 100km/week, but due to pain can only run 40km, they are better off maintaining that 40km/week whilst they rehab the injury than stopping running altogether.

 

Returning to Sport

You can see how these principles work together when getting an athlete back to full competition. Ceasing an activity completely means that it will take much longer to return to full workload with 10-20% training increases each week. Therefore, it is important to maintain a good workload during their recovery. As a result, the athlete is at less risk of injury and more likely to return to sport sooner. The graph below is taken from the guidelines provided by the AIS.

 

(Drew, 2015)

Drew, M. K. (2015). Loads and risks following troughs.

 

Blog by Physiotherapist,

Scott Findlater

Leave a Comments Cancel Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent Posts

  • Leg Exercise
  • Core Exercise
  • Arm Exercise
  • Hamstring Injuries

About Us

In offering our clients a wide diversity of highly professional, holistic services we provide a unique opportunity to improve not only pain, dysfunction, movement, and performance but our client’s overall sense of wellness and quality of life.

Alchemy in Motion - Noosa Physiotherapy
Alchemy in Motion - Noosa Physiotherapy
4.4
Based on 47 reviews
powered by Google

Links

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Services
  • Team
  • Timetable
  • Resources
  • Contact Us

Contact Us

NOOSA

Phone: (07) 5474 9093
Fax: (07) 5455 3174
Email: admin@alchemyinmotion.com.au
Web: www.alchemyinmotion.com.au
Location: Shop 2/24 Lanyana Way, Noosa Heads, QLD 4567 Australia

Contact Us

BUDERIM

Phone: (07) 5474 9093
Fax: (07) 5455 3174
Email: admin@alchemyinmotion.com.au
Web: www.alchemyinmotion.com.au
Location: Buderim Private Hospital, Suite 20, Nucleus Medical Suites Building B, 23 Elsa Wilson Drive, Buderim, QLD 4556 Australia

Sitemap | Privacy Policy © 2021 ALCHEMY IN MOTION, All Rights Reserved.