Prevention of overuse injuries by a concurrent exercise programme in subjects exposed to an increase in training load

▸Brushoj C, Larsen K, Albrecht-Beste E, et al. Am J Sports Med 2008;36:663–70.

Background:

Lower extremity overuse injuries are common during rapid increases in training such as military training — it has been suggested that an exercise programme to reduce intrinsic risk factors may decrease this risk.

Research question/s:

Does a preventive exercise training programme that is performed concurrently with an increase in physical activity reduce the incidence of overuse knee injuries and medial tibial stress syndrome?

Methodology:

Subjects: 1020 military recruits from 24 platoons (mean 20.9 years, 19–26 years).

Experimental procedure: All the subjects underwent 3 months basic military training and platoons were randomly assigned to one of two exercise programmes (15 min, 3/week) as follows: an injury prevention exercise programme (PRE = 487, five exercises for strength, flexibility, and coordination) or a control programme (CON = 490, five exercises for the upper body). Two hundred and twenty-three recruits reported lower extremity injuries during the 3 month study period (50 knee and 48 medial tibial stress syndrome — meeting the study criteria).

Measures of outcome: Incidence (% recruits in 3 months) of injury (lower extremity, knee, medial tibial stress), running performance (12 min run time).

Main finding/s:

Injury incidence: There were no differences in the incidence of injury between the PRE and the CON groups.

Running performance: Subjects in the PRE group had a greater improvement in running distance in 12 …