Injury Prevention 1
In the college setting many of us try to avoid putting on excess weight and maintaining a
healthy lifestyle. The constant torture we put our body to gain the physique we want or just to
stay in shape takes a toll on our bodies. Injury prevention can be simple and easy in the gym by
properly warming up, cooling down and using proper technique. We used a observational
method to find out if people are proper informed on how to use equipment also, to see if they
are properly warming up and cooling down their muscles. After handing out our surveys and
gathering research we saw that many people get a gist of what they are supposed to be doing
and others not so much. The education that needs to be stressed to the gym goers needs to be
improved. What people do not know will hurt them and they need to be properly educated
about warming up, cooling down, and using proper technique.
Injury Prevention 2
Christopher Alvarez, Connor Pastrick
Professor DiRosa
Consumer Health Decisions
Research Paper
Injury Prevention 3
Introduction
Injury prevention is a key part in the world of health and athletics. Injuries are an
enormous threat to our communities, a threat for which we have an array of effective prevention
strategies. (Larry Cohen, 2004) In the world of sports, whether it is collegiate, professional or
recreational, there are many injuries that occur during an athlete’s life.
Improper warm up and cool downs, weight lifting techniques, and improper sleep are all
factors that benefit toward increasing risk of injury. According to O’Sullivan, Murry and
Sainsbury they state, “Though the optimal pre-exercise routine is debated, an active aerobic
warm-up is commonly used as it has been shown to improve performance measures. Stretching
is also usually incorporated pre-exercise as it has been suggested to improve muscle flexibility,
prevent muscle injury and enhance physical performance.” (O’Sullivan, Murray, Sainsbury, p.2,
2009)
In athletics the body is a tool that must be taken care of it at all times. Before an
individual participates in physical activity a proper warm-up is essential to get the muscles ready
for action. Proper weightlifting techniques must be taught to you by a certified personal trainer
or strength coach. Certainly most important part of injury prevention is the recovery from
breaking down of muscle tissue that is repaired during sleep.
Injury Prevention 4
Research Question
Do Rowan’s physically active students know what to do before, during, and after workouts to
prevent injury?
Significance of the Problem
Many student athletes or non-athletes are physically active through there time here at
Rowan. Even though they are active, they may not know certain information in reference
warming up, cooling down, sleeping and techniques of lifting are all very important things that
the general student body is not really well informed on. According to Andersen, “Stretching
before or after physical activity can be observed daily in the clinical setting and in the
community, as clinicians and patients use stretching to prevent injury, decrease soreness, and
improve performance.” (p.2 2005)
The majority of students using the gym does not properly warm up and cool down with
certain stretches before and after. Machine weights are controlled and help people maintain
correct form, but free weight exercises are not. Therefore properly trained individuals like
certified strength coaches and personal trainers should be utilized to teach how to do certain free
weight exercises. Sleep is the most important factor on decreasing injury, because during sleep
your muscles are repairing themselves from the workout that the individual put themselves
through. According to the American Association of Sleep Medicine, more than one million
Americans are chronically sleep deprived. (Street,2002) Students need to be educated on the
importance of a proper night’s sleep and its relationship to reducing injury.
Injury Prevention 5
The importance of properly warming up and cooling down
. The proper way is to warm up the full body. The whole body is systems that depend on
one another and they all need to be in sync to conquer the hard workout ahead. If the muscular
and neurological are out of whack and not properly warmed up you will not be able to get the
most out of the workout. The main goal of a warm up is to increase the body’s heart rate up and
core temperature. This activates the neural pathways of the central nervous system that are
associated with fast twitch muscle fibers. These fibers are used for speed and explosion in your
workout. (Walter, Quint, Fischer, & Kiger, 2011)
Without properly warming up the individual is not reaching his/her full potential
muscularly. Richendollar, Darby, & Brown studded three randomly selected groups that were
given different warm-up and cool-down regimens to complete and compared the muscular output
of the three groups. One group had a proper warm up and proper cool-down. The other two had
no warm up at all and the last were applied with ice to cool down the muscle. The ice was
applied to see how a very cold muscle, dropped from regular temperature, would function.
(Richendollar, Darby, & Brown. 2006)
There were a series of functional movement tests that were applied to all three groups to
see the muscular output of the muscles. The exercises included a 40 yard sprint, Agility Shuttle
run, and single-leg vertical jump were tested to see the muscular output of the muscles. Taking
the single leg vertical jump for the main differences between groups the first group, with proper
warm up, jumped 26.83 cm. The group that had no ice applied to the muscle jumped a 25.58 cm.
The last final group that had ice applied to the muscle jumped 16.91 cm. The results of this
Injury Prevention 6
study showed significance difference between a cold and warm muscle. Without the active warm
up there was a 1.25 cm difference between active warm up jumps. That 1.25 cm difference is
significant for the study and it shows that to obtain maximum muscular output one needs to
complete a proper warm up. (Richendollar, Darby, & Brown. 2006)
Coinciding with an active warm up is an equally important cool down part. Many
individuals after the workout do not stretch their muscle to properly cool them down. It is very
important that individuals properly cool down to prevent blood from pooling in certain areas in
the body, which can be life threatening. Stretching after exercise is proper protocol to prevent
lower extremity injuries. Other ways of using post exercise stretching is to lower the amount of
muscle soreness, which is referred to as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness DOMS. (Andersen,
2005)
Anderson (2005) studied stretching before and after exercises and its relationship to
decreasing the reaction of DOMS. The researchers took a group of U.S Army recruits and gave
them stretching program that had four to ten reps. The recruits held the stretches from 30-120
seconds. After the intervention was done there was a 2% reduction in soreness that occurred
from the first 72 hours. (Anderson, 2005) One limitation that was given in this study was that
the stretches were not held long enough to prevent injury; however there was a slight reduction
in DOMS. (Anderson, 2005) These findings in this study were not drastic changes, but over
time mobility can decrease. All in all it is still important that post exercise stretching be done to
stop pooling and soreness.
To expand further on injury prevention or any topic of some sort, the more information
you have the easier it is to explain. With injury prevention in athletes and people who use the
Injury Prevention 7
gym, there are many factors into working out and being able to sustain proper health and
technique. The warm up and cool down is one of the few important factors before and after your
workout, the technique and form of lifts also play a pivotal role in muscular function and the
amount of rest you have is very important as well. These topics go deeper than the surface
containing knowledgeable information for keeping your body in great shape and phenomenal
health. The topic of technique with weight training is widely discussed to help prevent injuries,
sacrificing the technique leads to health problems and normal functions of the body, to avoid
this, the proper form and techniques are needed to help you get through your workout well and
fit.
Technique and form with weight lifting is the most important aspect of muscular
movements within the body’s range of motion. Whether the movement is body weight squatting,
abdominal core movements or simple bicep curls, the form of that movement is important to
understand how the muscle will build and repair itself. The correct movements create an efficient
way for the body to move, bend, spin and coordinate actions (rogers, 2011). The importance of
the technique should be the most stressed and spoken about structure with youth athletes and
students, their physical fitness is important to their future health. When lifting heavier weights
the chance of improper technique increase and the ability to perform the correct movement
decreases (rogers, 2011). The breakdown of the technique is the most important part to discuss;
you will always want to sacrifice the amount of weight to maintain the technique. One major
problem with training is spondylolsis with those who do weight lifting and sports. Spondylolsis
is one of the more common causes of pathological lower back pain that athletes and those with
improper weight lifting are exposed too(Carlson, 2007). Outside of the actual technique itself
Injury Prevention 8
there are other factors that play a role with the form these include breathing, posture and focus on
the muscle group that is being activated. ( Rogers 2011)
The warm up that takes place before lifting help reduce the chance of injury, primarily to
the spine, which is the most affected body with improper lifting due to bending and the mobility
of the back. ( Harwell, encyclopedia) The primary injury concern with weight training is your
spine, which is the most common injured body part when dealing with heavy weight training.
Preventing your injury with the correct form will help with daily exercise and health, avoiding
injury will make the exercise process easier and enjoyable pain free. The body and mind are
important when exercising because your focus should be on the body part you are working; this
focus will help with developing habit of thinking about the muscle group you are working with.
When lifting you should avoid locking your limbs, this could lead to joint problems especially
when aging as you get older. ( Rogers, 2011) When using machines like the leg press, locking
your limbs could get very dangerous in this situation if the weight were to fall. When working on
lateral and front raises you should keep your elbows with a slight bend so your joints don’t lock
out. When working out breathing also plays a role with the oxygen intake and output, the proper
breathing helps to create a well rounded workout. The rhythmic movement of the oxygen helps
the way the workout will precede, for example when squatting you inhale on the way down and
exhale on the way up using that burst of speed and oxygen in a rhythmic movement ( Rogers,
2011) With proper technique, breathing output and treatment of the body, you will be able to
exercise with a positive attitude and have less worries about your injuries. Injury prevention is
very important to athletes and those who exercise because their body is put on the line, the
overall health and physic of the body is going to help it function over the years. Keeping your
Injury Prevention 9
body in great shape with proper technique will lengthen the years you are able to do more
movements and abilities with your joints and muscles.
Chapter 3 Methodology
The survey will collect data study on injury prevention throughout Rowan University’s
college campus. The study will contain basic questions regarding age, gender and sex, types of
workouts, duration of their workout and injuries that occurred. The subjects of study will be
students at the rec center, the athletic facilities such as Esby Gym, the athletic office and the
local gyms or training facilities. The age group that is targeted will be the general college
population which ranges mostly from18-24 years old which include graduate students as well.
The criteria to be included in this study are just basic ability of working out at a gym. The
general requirements would just have to be familiar with exercising and your bodily movements
when working out. The collection of this data will take place around campus; the location we are
looking into would have to be the rec center entrance and exit, and possible food court
downstairs in the University student center. Collecting the data from the students and participants
will bring us to the conclusion and answer of our research question.
Distribution of the survey will take place during the first week in April at the rec center,
we will request some students to take a survey for our project. We will survey various and
random students to answer these questions, we will also attend different days and time periods as
well to see who attends the gym throughout the day. Being realistic about this, not everyone will
agree to take this survey for us, so we need to interview as many students willing to cooperate as
possible. I know the amounts of people we need to survey are 100, but to get a better idea of
injury prevention we would like to survey 100-150 students. The results will take longer to
Injury Prevention 10
calculate but the general idea would be more detailed and efficient for our statistics. The pilot
test was a helpful set up towards making our survey, the opinions we received in class and
comments will help create a more acceptable survey to those who will take this survey.
Chapter 4- Results
We gave out 75 surveys to Rowan University students in the Recreation Center. This
survey consisted of many questions regarding proper warm up and cool down and proper weight
lifting techniques. These surveys were anonymous but to categorize people we asked some
demographic questions. Age, gender, sport and level of classifications were asked. Next were
questions regarding knowledge about warm up, cool down and weight lifting. We asked
questions such as: Were you ever taught properly to lift from a Certified trainer or Strength and
conditioning coach, Do you believe you are properly warming up, How long are your warm ups,
Do you set time aside every day to stretch for at least 20 minutes and what were proper warm up
choices. Next we wanted to know how many people suffered from weight lifting and if they
were using proper technique. The questions we asked were, have you ever had an injury occur
because of improper technique, if yes how many injuries and what type of breathing technique to
do you use during weight lifting.
Injury Prevention 11
Age Group
60
50
40
30
Range
20
10
0
17-19
20-22
23+
The age group that was focused on in our survey was what we wanted to get our answers
from college students. This age group was perfect and exactly what we were looking for.
Gender
Females
Gender
Males
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Injury Prevention 12
This Bar Graph is showing the percentage of Males to Females difference in our study.
58% were male, 42% female showing this study was non-sexist and both genders had equal
opportunity.
Sports
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
Sports
4
2
0
Our research concluded these sports the individuals who filled out our survey were apart
of around campus. This showed a variety of sports that are played by many individuals around
Rowan.
Injury Prevention 13
Classifications of Weightlifting Knowledge
40
35
30
25
20
# of people
15
10
5
0
Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced
These are the results regarding the classifications the individuals who filled out our
survey believed their knowledge of weight training was. The findings are pretty equal between
beginners and advanced, but many intermediates are the majority of the study. People believe
they know enough to not be a beginner but still have a lot to learn to be an advanced weightlifter.
The percentages for this question are 27% Beginners, 25% Advanced and 48% were
Intermediate.
Injury Prevention 14
Taught how to lift weights from trainer or
CSCS
60%
50%
40%
30%
Taught how to lift weights from
trainer or CSCS
20%
10%
0%
Yes
No
This pie chart shows the percentage of people that were not taught from a professional
about weightlifting. Thirty-three individuals said they have not been taught by a professional
and forty-two individuals said they have been taught.
Properly Warming up and Cooling down
No
Believe they are properly
warming up and cooling down
Yes
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Injury Prevention 15
These results are based on the answers that people gave us regarding if they believe they
are properly warming up and cooling down. Sixty-three individuals said Yes, and twelve gave
No as a response. This shows that there are people who believe they properly warm up and cool
down before every exercise session.
Choices for Proper Warm up
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
percentage
20%
10%
0%
Meditation
Coffee and Pre- Dynamic Stretching
workout
Sprints
These choices were given to every participant in the survey. Nine people chose
meditation as a proper warm up choice and the rest are as follows. Nine also chose Coffee and
Pre-Workout, forty-seven chose dynamic stretching, and ten chose sprints.
Injury Prevention 16
Duration of Warm up
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
Percentage
15%
10%
5%
0%
2-3 min
4-5 min
5-10 min
10-15 min
The survey asked how long people would warm up. 12 people chose 2-3 min, 13 people
chose 4-5 min, 28 chose 5-10 min and 22 chose 10-15 minutes.
Improper Warm up & Cooldown related
injuries
No
# of People
Yes
0
10
20
30
40
50
Injury Prevention 17
These findings were to see the amount of people that had injuries because of improperly
warming up and cooling down.
% of People who Set 20 min aside everyday
to stretch
70%
60%
50%
40%
% of people
30%
20%
10%
0%
Yes
No
With the importance of stretching in preventing injury we asked if people were setting
aside 20 minutes every day to stretch.
# of injuries occurred through improper technique
6 injuries
5 injuries
No
4 injuries
3 injuries
2 injries
1 injury
Yes
# of people
0
10
20
30
40
50
Injury Prevention 18
This question was given to see how many people suffered injuries through improper
technique and the numbers of injuries the individuals have had due to improper technique.
Types of Breathing Technique While Weight
Training
Valsalva Maneuver
% of people
Inhale down, exhale up
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
An important technique many fail to recognize is breathing and this question was given to
see how many people used the right and improper breathing techniques in weight lifting.
Chapter 5 Discussion
Our research question was,
Injury Prevention 19
References
Andersen, J. C. (2005). Stretching before and after exercise: Effect on muscle soreness
and injury risk. Journal of Athletic Training, 40(3), 218-220. Retrieved
from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=19163913&site=ehost-live
O'Sullivan, K., Murray, E., & Sainsbury, D. (2009). The effect of warm-up, static
stretching and dynamic stretching on hamstring flexibility in previously injured subjects. BMC
Musculoskeletal Disorders, 10, 1-9. doi: 10.1186/1471-2474-10-37.
Richendollar, M. L., Darby, L. A., & Brown, T. M. (2006). Ice bag application, active
warm-up, and 3 measures of maximal functional performance. Journal of Athletic
Training, 41(4), 364-370. Retrieved
fromhttp://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=23643152&site=ehost-live.
Samson, M., Button, D. C., Chaouachi, A., & Behm, D. G. (2012). Effects of dynamic
and static stretching within general and activity specific warm-up protocols. Journal of Sports
Science & Medicine, 11(2), 279-285. Retrieved
from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=77870281&site=ehost-live.
Street, E. (2002). Extra zzzs. American Fitness, 20(5), 20. Retrieved
from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=7438019&site=ehost-live.
Chris Dinesen Rogers (May 12th, 2011) Proper techniques to be used for bending &
lifting retrieved from:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/438535-proper-techniques-to-be-used-for-bending-lifting/.
Chad T. Carlson ( July 2007) Spondylosis and the Athlete, Athletic Therapy Today. Pg 37-39.
Injury Prevention 20
Sayer, Mary Harwell, an Arya Nick Shamie Exercise and Back health the encyclopedia
of the back and spine systems and disorders Retrieved from:
http://www.fofweb.com.ezproxy.rowan.edu/HRC/default.asp.