Prevention of Joint Injuries in Weightlifters

Here is a Bulgarian article on sports injuries from the IWF technical
conference held in conjunction with the 1983 World Weightlifting
Championships in Varna.

------------------------------------

Prevention of Joint Injuries in Weightlifters

Dr.H.K.Slavov
Bulgaria

Injuries and traumatism range among the most common reasons forcing
famous athletes, though unbeaten on the platform, to give up their
favourite sport and, sometimes, to carry their unpleasant
consequences all their lives. It is well known that trauma is not the
sole preserve of sport; injuries happen in everyday life, in the
workplace, on the streets and highways, in motor accidents, etc.
Therefore, we speak about different kinds of injuries:
professional, domestic, transport, military. and sports trauma.

Prevention of sports injuries is one of the most important tasks of
sports medicine. Here sports pedagogues are bound to participate as
well. They must know the particularities, the basic reasons, and
conditions creating the various kinds of sports injuries. It is no
coincidence that, when there is a good team work of the coach and the
physician, trauma is a rarity.

It is well known that sports injuries vary in kind and frequency in
the different kinds of sport. In order to refer them to a common
denominator, the number of injuries per 1000 engaged in that sport is
compared. This gives the following picture: boxing -153, wrestling -
107, fencing - 64.2, gymnastics -29, weightlifting -19, swimming -
13.2, basketball -8.1, track & field athletics -2, etc.

As can be seen from the above data, the incidence of weightlifting
injury is not excessively high, but is still quite far above the
average percentage for sport as a whole - 4.7 per 1000 engaged in
sports. And in microtrauma, our sport, due to the large volume and
intensity of workouts used, ranks quite unfavourably, although no
statistics about the participants in the national teams have been
published. In a statistical study by G.M.Kukulevski, 1980, the
relatively high incidence of micro-injuries is revealed. As a whole
they represent 35.1% of all illnesses and injuries, while the
injuries are only 31.7% and the remaining ailments amount to 31.9 % .
Another study by P.D.Graevska, (1980) shows that, in parallel
investigations of traumatism in students engaged and not engaged in
sport, those who participate in sports suffer injuries and ailments
of the lever and motor apparatus to an extent of 45%, while with in
others the percentage is only about 8 %.

As it is known, under the influence of systematic sports training,
the athlete's body becomes more resistant to various environmental
affects and diseases, and a lot of the latter show more concealed
clinical pictures and can remain hidden from the coach and even from
the sports physician. If, due to that reason, timely and efficient
treatment is missed and the athlete carries on his workloads, one can
expect a failure.

Ailments with sportsmen and sportswomen are often a result of
incorrect training methods when the athletes are offered loads which
do not correspond to their existing functional state, when their
preparation is speeded up, when there is a sharp increase in the
volume and intensity of loading without efficient care for the
recovery processes, when there is strictly specialized and monotonous
muscle work without any change of rhythm and the dominant focus of
loading, and when there is an absence of unloading days in the
microcycles, or unloading weeks and months in the macrocycles.

Inefficient training and muscle work are particularly harmful when
combined with wrong diet and recovery. If other harmful habits are
also contributing, such as sleeplessness, use of stimulating
substances, presence of focal infections like decayed teeth, chronic
tonsillitis, infections of the urinary tract, recent colds, lack of
rehabilitation after an injury etc, serious problems for the
athlete's health or sporting longevity could arise........

If an analysis of trauma is made and the relative weight of a lot of
such factors is established as a direct or indirect cause for the
given ailment of injury, then we obtain the following picture:

l. Faults and shortcomings in the methods of training. These reasons
are responsible for at least 30-60% of the injuries. The faults
result from the violation of the basic didactic principles of
education: regularity of the workouts, gradual increase of the load,
continuity in the mastering of the motor habits and individualization
of the coaching process. I think that these points are clear enough,
so that I need not dwell on them any longer.

2. Organizational shortcomings of the training session and of the
competition could be the cause of trauma in 4-8% of the cases. As
traumatic factors we can include a wrongly worked-out programme, lack
of individual and collective safety apparatus, inefficient
arrangement of the athletes in the hall, overcrowded platforms, etc.

3. Faulty apparatus and equipment can be made responsible for
approximately 25 % of injuries. Inadequate tools, equipment, sports
clothing and shoes, belts, an inadequate room in which the training
session is held, dangerous platforms, etc. could lead to accidents.

4. Unfavourable hygienic and environmental conditions. In
weightlifting the weather conditions play a lesser role for injuries,
but shall nevertheless be kept in mind because training sessions can
be held in the open, too, and exercises from other sports can be
included such as football and basketball. All these cause some 2-6%
of the injuries. Bad heating, polluted and dusty air, poor
illumination, etc. are to be eliminated as unfavourable factors, too.

Here one has to reckon the role of the incompleted acclimatization to
higher altitudes, jet time lag, and local climatic acclimatization.

5. Inappropriate behaviour of the athletes themselves, such as lack
of discipline and concentration, an underestimation of fatigue, can
be the cause of injury in 5-15% of the cases. Injuries can be caused
by the low qualification of the athlete who has not effectively
mastered the skills needed for a certain exercise or the liberal
attitude towards the technique of execution by the coaches and
referees.

6. Some violations of the medical rules about the organization of the
training process, or selection of training by athletes not fully
recovered from injuries and ailments, and ignoring of prescribed
safety measures (individual or collective) give rise to about 2-10%
of the injuries.

To the internal factors linked with injury one could reckon a lot of
constitutional particularities and those changes taking place in the
process of sporting activities under the influence of unfavourable
outside conditions or other internal factors:

1. Very dangerous is the impairment of coordination which takes place
in conditions of fatigue and overfatigue along with the lower ability
of the nervous system and the changes in the tonus. This disharmony
of muscles, of the antagonists and synergies, could lead to
unforseeable consequences.

2. Changes in the functional status of the single organs and systems
caused by the sudden interruption of the training due to some illness
or injury could be, in its turn, a cause for injury. It is known that
the prolonged interruption of the workouts due to health reasons
leads to a sharp fall in the power and speedcapacities, to a loss of
endurance and to impairment of the motor habit which in itself could
lead to eventual incongruity between the wish and the capacities.

3. A similar premise is insufficient physical preparation.

4. The susceptibility of some athletes, under certain conditions, to
spasms of the muscles and blood vessels.

The prevention of injuries and the above mentioned ailments is
directly related to the causes for their appearance, which were
clearly stated. As I mentioned before the prophylaxis should be
carried out both by the coach and the team doctor. No prevention
could take place without their combined efforts and work. Each of
them should think, first of all, about the health of the athletes,
because the risks in today's sport are quite high.