Advanced biomechanical analysis- lecture 20- Injury risk factors

Advanced biomechanical analysis- lecture 20- injury risk factors
Aims:
 Consider the role of biomechanics in injury prevention
 Identify how factors for injury can be classified
 Determine mechanisms to assist in reducing risk of injury


Factors affecting injury:
It is important to understand how biological materials fail, and how other materials
affect injury:
 Load characteristics
 Genetic factors
 Fitness or training state
 Technique
 Equipment and surfaces
 Structural properties of tissues


Cause of injury
How injuries occur is important to:
 Obtain information on why an athlete may be at risk in a certain situation (risk
factors)
 How injury happen- the mechanisms of injury


Load characteristics
Bahr & Krosshaug (2005) identify two statements:
 The properties of human tissue, load characteristics and strength determine
our response to physical loads
 Injury is dependent on the nature, type of load, the rate & frequency of load
repetition, the magnitude of the load, load tolerance & intrinsic factors
The important part to focus on is how the event resulted in a load excessive of
normal tolerations, or tolerance levels reduced to a level that mechanical load can’t
be tolerated. Factors affecting load & load tolerance include:
 Behaviour- athlete may take more risks due to using protective equipment
 Training/skills- players who develop skills may place more load on the muscle
group being used- eg tennis player having a fast serve increases load on the
shoulder
 Equipment- certain equipment is used for protective purposes such as skiers
wearing helmets