[saltojump5]

saltojump5 on March 31, 2006 at 11:57 am #11730

OK, I feel horrible right now and am beating myself up over this one. I'm currently coaching high school jumpers, and our star long jumper/200m runner has just suffered a likely lower abdominal/groin strain. I had had the same injury/sports hernia in the past, but had changed the setup of the workouts so as to avoid this type of injury. I feel I have put together a pretty good program, however something is wrong that this injury should occur. Insight into the link between workouts and this type of injury would be greatly appreciated. The approach we've been taking is short to long. As a result, on a typical speed/power development day, we have been achieving early season volume through a higher number of sets of short sprints and then lifts w/ short end or in place jumps as a complex. Split sessions are best, but given the nature of high school organized practices, we've had one continuous session daily. High intensity days, every other day, have lasted about 2 1/2 hours as a result of this approach. We've had full recovery between each sprint or set of lifting, but could the prolonged nature of the session have caused this type of injury? I've had the jumpers following a setup similar to what I've seen on this site (or at least my interpretation of it). On the day of injury, it went flying sprints (3xflying 10's, 6xflying 20's) to cleans (2×4 @ 70%, 2×3 @ 75%) w/ complex, to 1/2 back squats (1×5 @ 60%, 2×5 @ 65%, 2×5 @ 70%) w/ complex. Injury occured during one of the last sets of squats. Weight belt was not worn (was it necessary at 70% SRM and only 185 lbs. load?). Athlete had no history of this injury or indication of onset prior to this instance. This is a Junior in high school who opened up at 23 feet in the long jump in our first practice meet indoors from a painted line, so any help to get him back on track and prevent this from reoccuring would be much appreciated. The only other culprit I can think of is that our tempo (6x200m) the day before the injury had come with a couple of turnarounds on each set  (hallway was 70m) in order to achieve the distance, thus causing unwanted accelerations on that day in order to get back up to tempo pace. We also went heavy on the abdominal work the day before the injury. Mainly, though, I'm looking for a link between a continuous 2 1/2 hour session of high intensity with longer rest intervals and this type of injury.

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on April 1, 2006 at 10:52 am #52690

Injuries are not always a result of training. Potentially undetected biomechanical irregularities may make an athlete prone to injury. While certain training may exacerbate the problem I wouldn't exactly call the training the direct cause of the problem. Also, as coaches we don't have any control over lifestyle issues (walking, standing and sitting postures, sleep habits, etc.) which could lead to injury. You're program looks fine to me and from what I see I don't think that it is the cause of the problem.

ELITETRACK Founder

[saltojump5]

saltojump5 on April 1, 2006 at 11:44 am #52691

Thank you for the vote of confidence, Mike. I had him on the stationary bike and doing upper body circuit work the day after the injury, and just stationary bike today…you know, non-aggravating work. He'll take Saturday and Sunday off. The injury hurt him a good amount the day of, as he did light stretching. He tested it the next day with more light stretching, and most of the pain had already subsided, though it was still slightly detectable. Would it be best for all hints of discomfort to be gone before attempting any quick motions again? We have a meet on Thursday, which would be 8 days after the injury. Knowing that injuries are individual, as a general rule, would that be too soon to prepare a comeback? I'm thinking low intensity work until Wed, when we test some faster actions in pre-meet fashion. Mike, Rtosh, or anyone with knowledge of this type of problem can chime in. Many thanks.

[saltojump5]

saltojump5 on April 4, 2006 at 11:11 am #52692

Well, we deduced the likely cause of injury. The athlete told me he probably was off center underneath the barbell as he was squatting. He couldn't find the rings on this particular barbell, so he was not careful as he loaded it onto his back. Also, he didn't use clamps, and the plates were sliding down one side. As a result, he had to overcompensate for extra load on one side of his body. He said it got really heavy on one leg, and he strained himself and possibly twisted in righting the one side. So the workouts were fine, it was just that he didn't have himself set up for a safe squat. On top of that, he told me he did have a hernia as a young child, thus a possible reoccurrence now. But the morals of the story are, "set yourself up with safety in mind when lifting" and "never let yourself feel hurried during a workout".