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Editorial
Training load and structure-specific load: applications for sport injury causality and data analyses
  1. Rasmus Oestergaard Nielsen1,
  2. Michael Lejbach Bertelsen1,
  3. Merete Møller1,
  4. Adam Hulme2,3,
  5. Johann Windt4,5,
  6. Evert Verhagen2,6,
  7. Mohammad Ali Mansournia7,8,
  8. Martí Casals9,10,
  9. Erik Thorlund Parner11
  1. 1 Section for Sports Science, Department of Public Health, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
  2. 2 Australian Collaboration for Research into Injury in Sports and its Prevention (ACRISP), Federation University Australia, Ballarat, Australia
  3. 3 Centre for Human Factorsand Sociotechnical Systems, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
  4. 4 Experimental Medicine Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
  5. 5 Centre for Hip Health and Mobility, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
  6. 6 Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam Collaboration on Health & Safety in Sports, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam Movement Science, Vancouver, Netherlands
  7. 7 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  8. 8 Sports Medicine ResearchCenter, Neuroscience Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  9. 9 Sport Performance Analysis Research Group, University of Vic, Barcelona, Spain
  10. 10 Research Centre Network for Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain
  11. 11 Section for Biostatistics, Department of Public Health, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
  1. Correspondence to Professor Mohammad Ali Mansournia, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 11111111, Iran; mansournia_ma{at}yahoo.com

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2017-097838

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    Definitions

    Training load

    Training load represents step count, throws, distance run and/or time spent practising sport. This can be used to calculate a change in training load over time (eg, acute:chronic workload ratio or week-to-week changes), which has been used as a time-varying exposure to sports injury recently.

    Structure-specific cumulative load

    Can be viewed as the sum of step-specific or throw-specific loads that a certain musculoskeletal structure is exposed to during a training session. Estimation of the structure-specific cumulative load per training session involves stepwise or throw-wise quantification of the load distribution and the load magnitude.

    Structure-specific load capacity

    Can be defined as a certain structure’s ability to withstand structure-specific cumulative load.

    Introduction

    How should I schedule my training? How much is too much? Coaches and sports medicine clinicians commonly face such questions when considering training and injury risk. These are highly relevant inquiries, as training load is a necessary cause of sports injury.1 2 To provide answers, our analytical approaches should align with causal frameworks. Changes in training load (eg, acute:chronic workload ratio) has been used as an interesting exposure to injury lately3–5 and promoted as proximal in the causal chain to sports injury.2 6 However, the aetiology behind sports injury development is multifactorial.1 Therefore, more variables (eg, body mass, alignment, diet, strength) than training load are necessary to robustly identify ‘how much is too much’.7 Accordingly, the purpose of this editorial is to describe the differences among the concepts ‘training-load’, ‘structure-specific load’ and ‘load capacity’, including the varied exposures that define them.

    Athletes at different risks

    Sports injury prevention scientists should carefully consider how best to phrase their research questions in aetiological …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors RON drafted the editorial, while the remaining coauthors revised it for important intellectual content.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement No data available.