Lesson video

Hi there.

It's Mr. Broome here with a lesson called Injury Prevention from the Physical Training Injury and Injury Prevention Unit.

Great to have you with me.

Now, of course, injuries, sadly, are a fact of life.

As much as we hope they don't happen, we're all going to experience the odd injury here and there, especially if you're a physically active person.

But what we can do is try to prevent injuries from happening as much as possible.

And so in today's lesson, we're gonna have a look at some of those measures that we can take to try to make sure that people are exercising and performing safely, and that injuries are kept to a minimum.

Let's begin.

Okay, so by the end of today's lesson, you should be able to identify and explain a number of those injury preventative measures.

And here are today's key words.

There are five of them.

They are injury, injury prevention, hydration, over training, and technique.

As always, pause video here if you'd like to have a look at those in more detail.

The lesson has three parts today, and the first one is called identify how to plan training to prevent injury.

So let's have a look.

Okay, so what does injury mean? Well, it means physical harm or damage to the body.

And unfortunately, all sports and physical activities carry some risk of injury to the performer.

I'm sure you can think of certain activities which have a really high risk of injury to the performer.

However, there are, in each of them, a number of injury prevention measures which can be taken to prevent them from happening.

Nobody wants these injuries to happen, however high the risk.

And so, in most cases, something will have been done to try to prevent or reduce the number of injuries, and that's what we're going to learn about today.

Let's just begin by saying that an important injury prevention measure is to check that an exercise plan carefully considers the principles of training, which hopefully you know and can remember from a previous lesson.

Lucas asks, "Do you remember what the principles of training are?" Maybe pause the video here and try to write them all down.

Here they are then.

Specificity, progressive overload, reversibility, tedium, FITT, F-I-T-T, which stands for frequency, intensity, time, and type.

And Lucas's second question is, which of these will be most important to consider for injury prevention? Okay, remember the title of this is "How to Plan Training." So if we're using those principles of training to create a training plan, which of those will help us to make sure that the performer doesn't get injured? Let's have a look.

So here we have somebody out on a run, and they say, "I run five kilometres today for the first time, and I feel good.

I think tomorrow I'll try to run 20 kilometres." And they're obviously full of confidence and feeling great after their 5K run, and their ambition now is to run 20 kilometres tomorrow.

Alex asks, "Does that sound like a good idea to you?" Okay.

Have a think about that.

Is that a good idea for that runner to go out and do 20 kilometres tomorrow? It's probably not a great idea because the workload that the runner is going to go through is increasing by a very large amount very quickly.

This runner needs to really consider progressive overload, otherwise they might quickly get injured by pushing the body too hard.

So progressive overload.

Let's remind ourselves what progressive overload means.

Hopefully you already have a good idea about this.

So it means gradually increasing the amount of overload so that fitness gains occur, but without potential for injury, and that last bit is the important part in today's lesson.

A lot of people think that overload means doing too much, but it certainly doesn't.

It means giving the body a little bit more to do than it's used to.

Okay.

And progressively and gradually increasing the amount.

That way, we're going to avoid injury.

If we think about the person on the slide before, increasing the overload from doing five kilometres for the very first time and then the next day trying to do 20 kilometres, it's just too much.

That's not gradually increasing.

That's massively increasing, like rapidly increasing, and so that could lead to injury.

So the gradual increase of stress placed upon the body during exercise or training.

Alex asks, "What would be a more sensible idea for the runner to do tomorrow?" Perhaps have a little pause of the video here and consider what that runner who's just on their first of a five kilometres could possibly do tomorrow.

Well, here's the runner again.

Here's some things that they might want to consider.

Maybe running slightly further so that overload is progressing gradually.

And slightly further Could just be something like half a kilometre more, maybe just a couple of hundred metres more.

It could be even better, however, if they have a resting day, because rest is vital to allowing the body to recover, and going for a run the next day might be pushing the body too hard, which in our principles of training would be called over training.

They might want to try a different type of exercise tomorrow that works different muscles.

That will help to avoid tedium caused by training in the same way every time.

Okay, so they don't wanna get bored of their training if they're constantly going on runs, but it will also give the muscles that worked yesterday in the run a chance to rest while perhaps other muscles are used.

Maybe she could go to the gym and do some weight training.

Here's a quick check for understanding.

An athlete lifted heavy weights today in training.

Which of these options would be sensible to the next day to help avoid injury? Is it A, having a rest day from all training to allow their muscles to recover, B, working the same muscles again but double the workload, or C, train using a different training method which doesn't stress the muscles that were worked today? Which one do you think? Okay, so two of those answers were acceptable.

Yes, the athlete could have a rest day.

It could be a day where they are free from any exercise to give all those muscles a chance to recover.

They might instead, as we said with the runner, train using a different training method which doesn't stress the muscles work today.

They might go for a swim for example.

That would perhaps use the muscles in a different way that wouldn't stress them in the same way as the weight training.

But what they certainly wouldn't want to do is go back into the gym, work the same muscles again and double the workload because what you're going to end up doing is over training those muscles.

Well done if you noted that A and C were both viable options for that athlete.

Here's your task for this section of the lesson.

Jacob's here and he says, "Here's the new training plan I wrote to help me get stronger legs." What do you think? Okay.

what we've got there are the days of the week, the exercise he's going to do on each of those days, the sets, and the repetitions.

So on Monday for example, he's going to do one set of 10 repetitions and the exercise is squats.

The very next day, he's back in the gym doing squats again.

This time he's going to do two sets, instead of one, and each set is going to be for 15 reps.

And what we can see is that by Sunday, Jacob's intention is to do squats for five sets with 30 repetitions.

Your task is to identify two factors with Jacob's training plan, which might lead to him getting injured, and suggest two changes he could make to that training plan to help avoid those injuries.

Pause the video here, write your answer, and come back to me in a moment for some suggested answers.

Okay.

So what did you think about Jacob's training plan? I asked you to identify two factors with Jacob's training plan, which might lead to him getting injured.

Here's some things you might have said.

Jacob's training plan only includes one type of exercise, squats, which means the same muscles will be working every training day.

This will lead to over training those muscles.

Jacob's a little bit too focused on doing squats and perhaps should think about doing something else.

Well, we'll find out in a minute.

Something else that might cause an injury is that there really wasn't much rest and recovery time factored into the plan, which will also lead to over training.

After working really hard, a muscle may need up to a week to recover before it can be stressed in the same way again.

Okay.

So Jacob doing squats on Sunday might really fatigue the muscles, and they'll need time to rest and recover before perhaps having to wait until the next Sunday to do his next training session on squats.

Jacob's plan includes overload in each new session.

He's considered the fact that he needs to overload and progressively overload, but if you notice the progress is far too quick, far too much, far too soon, and the demands on the body will be too great, could lead to injury.

That Sunday session is a lot of heavy lifting, considering that, on the Monday, he had only done one set of 10.

Far too great a change within the space of six days.

Well done if you noted some of those factors with Jacob's training plan.

The second part was to identify some changes he should make or suggest some changes he should make to that training plan.

And here's some things you might have said.

Jacob should vary the exercise he's doing to avoid overtraining the muscles, the muscles of course that are being worked in squats, which would lead to injuring them.

There are numerous different exercise to help him build strength in his legs, such as lunges or hip flexors, and this will help to avoid tedium also.

If he's constantly doing squats is the only way he trains, there's a chance he'll get bored of doing squats quite quickly, isn't it? Something else you might have suggested, that Jacob should include more rest days to allow his legs to recover.

And thirdly here, in my suggestions, the progressive overload needs to be applied much more gradually.

A session one week later with the same number of sets or one or two more repetitions would be acceptable progressive overload.

So if Jacob does one set of 10 on Monday, then the following Monday, he could do one set of 12 reps with the same weight, and that would be perfectly acceptable progressive overload.

That would be an acceptable increase in the training volume.

Okay, well done if you also suggested two good changes that he could make to the training plan to help him avoid injury.

So now we're moving on to our second part of the lesson, and that's called reducing the risk of injury during participation.

So we're not planning anymore.

We're actually participating.

Aisha's got a question for you.

If these people were about to play tennis, what problems might they occur from the clothes they are wearing? Take a look at that picture.

What do you think? Well, they're not dressed well, are they, for playing tennis or any sport in fact or physical activity.

And wearing the correct clothing is vital to reduce the risk of injuries.

Clothing should allow for the full range of movement required in the activity, and clothing like that will not allow the participant to have the free range of movement.

Can you see the difference in how these tennis outfits will allow for stretching, lunging, running and striking the ball much easier? And you can, can't you? That clothing is suitable for tennis and allows that range of movement, and all the skills which you might need to perform and all the movements that you might need to perform in the game of tennis.

Much more suitable than the people in the previous slide.

Quick check for understanding, which of these are wearing suitable clothing for the activity.

Is it A, the hurdler, B, the boxer, or C, the paddle boarder? Okay, so possibly one of the easiest questions you'll be asked.

of course the answer is A and C.

They are wearing suitable clothing that allows the freedom of movement that they'll need to be able to perform their activity.

However, B, quite clearly, is not a suitable boxing outfit.

I'm sure you spotted that one.

Jun asked you to take a look at these cricket players in the picture.

And what can you see that they are wearing which will help them avoid injuries? Well, you probably spotted the helmet.

Both of them are wearing helmets.

Both of them are wearing gloves.

The batter is wearing arm pads in case the ball strikes him on the arm, and they're also wearing leg pads which cover most of the legs.

There may be other padding as well under the clothing that you can't see.

Now here we have on the left another picture from softball, similar sport where a hard ball travels quite fast and could cause injury.

And the point here is to demonstrate how wearing the correct clothing and the correct equipment is vital to reduce the risk of injuries, particularly in high risk sports such as cricket and softball.

In most cases, protective equipment like the ones we've seen absorb the impact of either hitting the ground, like if you fell onto the ground, or hard objects like a cricket ball being bowled at you at 90 miles per hour, or perhaps other people.

There could be a collision of people.

Laura's question is for you to reflect on what types of protective equipment do you wear when playing your favourite sports or physical activities.

Maybe share with somebody who's next to you nearby you what kind of protective equipment you wear and what kind of equipment they wear in a different activity.

Quick check for your understanding what cause of injury does protective equipment such as helmets and padding reduce the risk of? Is it A injuries caused by impact with an object or a person? Is it B, injuries caused by overtraining, C, injuries caused by not warming up properly, or D, injuries caused by a poor training plan? Okay, it was A, wasn't it? Injuries caused by impact with an object or a person.

The other three options are all causes of injury, but not ones that can be prevented by wearing specialist protective equipment.

So well done if you spotted A.

Izzy says, "Why does shoes worn for different sports look different?" And she has a point, doesn't she? Let's have a look at some.

Here we have a pair of football boots, a pair of running shoes, and a pair of basketball shoes.

And you probably notice quite a lot of differences between the way they are made.

So they're all designed in certain ways to aid the performance, to make you perform the sport better or the activity better, but they're also designed to avoid injuries that are specific to the sport.

Let's have a look at some of the features.

So on a football boot, you have studs which helps you to grip the field.

Football is often played on muddy surfaces or wet surfaces, and that would lead to regular slipping over and falling over if those studs weren't there to help grip into the muddy field.

With running, they don't need the studs because they don't have the same sort of movement and the same sort of surfaces regularly.

And so instead, they have a cushion sole to reduce the impact on the joints.

If you think about running your knee joint, your hip joint is constantly being pounded as your feet are on the concrete surface of a road or a path.

And so the cushion sole helps to absorb some of that impact and hopefully reduce any long-term injuries or overuse injuries that might occur from the impact on your joints.

But how about a basketball shoe? And that looks very different, doesn't it, particularly at the top.

Basketball's shoes, they have a high profile, what we call a high profile, where it helps to support the ankle because basketball players with the way that they move in basketball, they get lots of ankle injuries, lots of twisting, lots of overstretching of ligaments and tendons.

And so those shoes are designed to try and help support the ankle so that less of those injuries occur.

Andeep's here, and he asks, "What important role does drinking water play?" What do you think? Well, it's all about keeping hydrated, isn't it? And that's vital to performing and replacing fluids which you lose through sweating.

Some endurance athletes, you might have seen these, they will wear a hydration vest where it's like a backpack almost, which you can fill different pockets with water that are all linked up to a straw, and you can regularly drink through the straw to get a top up of water, especially if you are not going to see a tap or a water station or something for quite a long amount of time.

And so you'll regularly see those being worn in endurance events.

Here's a practise for you for this session.

This is task B.

This runner is preparing to go on a 20 mile run, which is pretty far, nearly three quarters of a marathon.

Identify three items they should use to help them avoid injury, including a brief explanation for each.

So based on what we've looked at in this section already, what would you suggest she includes in her kit to make sure she avoids injuries where possible? Pause the video here and come back to me in a moment when you have your three items and brief explanation for each.

Okay, three items that the runner should include to help them avoid injury.

Things you might have said.

So they should wear appropriate clothing which allow for the full range of movement.

This could be running shorts, or leggings, or running vest or top.

Wearing really tight, ill-fitting, not very flexible clothing would not be suitable.

You need to be able to move, don't you, when you run.

Appropriate footwear for running in which the support and cushioning is included in the footwear.

other footwear might not absorb the impact quite as well.

You see some people running with very flat sort of fashion shoes, and they're just slapping the floor because they haven't got the cushioning that they need.

And of course, as we've touched upon already in today's lesson, they should have a water bottle or a hydration vest for a long run, like 20 miles is.

They should drink plenty of water to replace the fluids that they lose through sweat, and that will help them stay hydrated.

So three things there that we really would advise that somebody doing a 20-mile run should include in their kit.

Brings us onto the third section of today's lesson, and that's how to identify additional measures to prevent injury.

We've looked at how we can plan training to prevent injury.

We've looked at how we can change things during participation to avoid injuries, but there are several other things that we might do, several other measures which we might take.

Here's the first one.

So when someone has a weakness in a joint or a muscle, they may use one of these methods to support it while participating.

I wonder if you've ever done this yourself.

So we have something called bracing, which is like a support which you will wear around the joint or the muscle which is feeling weak.

Or you might, and this has become a lot more common these days, use some sort of tape, kinesiology tape, around the joint to help support it.

So bracing and taping.

Quick check for understanding.

Does each image here show taping or bracing? Which do you think? Okay, so A showed taping.

They call it kinesiology tape, and he's having his shoulder taped to give it some extra support.

B is a type of brace, a Velcro version of a brace.

And C is also a type of brace.

So taping and bracing, ways of supporting joints or muscles which are feeling or have some sort of weakness.

How about lifting and carrying equipment? Let's imagine you're going to a sports hall and there's a load of gymnastics equipment that needs to be moved before you can do your basketball session for example.

You might need to lift that heavy object of gymnastics equipment, and things like vaults, and balance beams, and all sorts of gymnastics equipment are quite heavy, and they could lead to injury if you don't lift them properly.

So carrying heavy objects comes with a risk of injury, and those involved should be taught the correct technique to do so correctly.

It's very easy to think you can lift something but actually use the wrong technique and lead to an injury.

And so you should be taught how to lift something.

What is the correct technique for carrying heavy objects? I wonder if you've ever been taught this yourself.

We'll have a look on the next slide, but before I progress to that next slide, have a think about what you know about how to lift and carry heavy objects.

Okay, let's have a look, shall we? This diagram really suitably shows us a good technique and a poor technique when it comes to lifting.

So remember the following if you have to lift something heavy.

You need to maintain the correct posture throughout, and the image on the left is a good guide.

That includes bending your knees fully.

What you can see is the person in the incorrect technique is not bending their knees.

They're bending at the waist.

Keep your back straight at all times.

Don't let it arch over.

Keep that object, the heavy object close to your body at all times.

And then when it's time to lift, of course you bent down to pick it up.

The lifting will come by extending your legs to get the object to move up, and not by just simply extending at the hips.

So always ensure, when you're lifting heavy things, that you do it so with correct posture and correct technique.

Okay, so we've talked about lifting technique, but just generally having good technique when you're performing will help reduce the risk of injury.

Think of some examples here, but there are many more.

So if you are lifting weights in the gym, you need to do so with good form.

There are lots of things out there which will show you how to lift weights correctly, but lots of people still lift them incorrectly, and you're gonna put too much stress on certain parts of your joints, certain ligaments, certain tendons if you're not lifting it properly and could easily lead to injury.

Something like running technique.

Alright, you might think, well, everyone knows how to run, but actually lots of people run with poor technique, maybe an imbalance in the way that they run.

And if they do it for long enough, it's going to lead to an injury such as an overuse injury.

And with dancing, if you're using incorrect technique when you're dancing, chances are you might put stress on the body that is a little bit too much and therefore lead to an injury.

And these are three examples, but pretty much every type of physical activity, if it's not done with good technique, could lead to injury.

And so it's always a great idea to check that you're performing in the right way with the right technique and listen to people who know what they're talking about and they're trying to teach you how to perform with correct technique.

Quick check for understanding.

Is this one true or false? Lifting with correct technique can help avoid back strains.

That's true isn't it? I mean, if you think back to our image that was on the left hand side there a couple of slides ago, we know that the back arching over with incorrect technique, well, if that back then is wholly responsible for lifting something heavy, then it's going to put too much stress on those back muscles and could easily lead to a strain of one of those back muscles.

Okay, so why is it true? Back strains are a common injury caused by poor lifting posture, arching your back over, rather than keeping it straight, puts it's too much pressure on the back muscles and can lead to strains.

Well done if you've said true.

And here we have an image which is an important image to consider when we are weightlifting.

And what we have here is somebody acting as a spotter.

I wonder if you've ever heard that phrase before.

This is a technique used to help avoid injury during weightlifting.

By having somebody there to support the person who's lifting the weights.

The spotter will ensure that the performer is using the correct technique, and they'll help if they are struggling.

Let's think about this exercise during your practise.

Here's task C.

So performing a back squat is a great strengthening exercise.

It's one of the best strengthening exercise you can do, particularly for the legs but also for many muscles of the body.

But it could also cause injury.

Identify three things the performer should consider to help avoid injury.

What do you think? Three things a performer should consider to help avoid injury during a back squat? Pause the video here, write them down, and come and see me again in a moment for some suggested answers.

Okay, some feedback on task C with the back squatter.

Well three things the performer should consider to help them avoid injury.

You might have said, let's say well look, ensure they know the correct technique.

It's really important that people know how to perform the correct technique before they go ahead and do something with the heavy weight like the back squat.

Use a spotter to help ensure the correct technique is used and to help if they begin to struggle.

Okay, so the back squatter might get to a point where they've gone down and they're ready to push up, but they just can't find the strength, and now they're stuck with a heavy weight on their back.

By having a spotter, that spotter can help them to ease the weight a little, use their hands to lift the weight up, and help them get back into a safe position before deloading the bar.

They should wear clothing that allows the full range of movement.

Of course, again, you wouldn't go to do a back squat wearing a suit or a dress like in one of the slides earlier.

They should wear appropriate footwear.

Okay? You wouldn't wear super high heels because that would lead to you falling over perhaps or losing your balance, and that's definitely not what you want to be doing while you've got a big heavy weight on your back, if they have an area of weakness like a joint or a muscle, they could use some bracing or taping.

And they should ensure that they have had enough time to rest and recover since the last time they performed the back squat so that they don't overtrain.

Finally, make sure they're regularly drinking water to remain hydrated.

Loads, isn't there, that we could say about the back squat and things that you can consider to help avoid injury? This really encompasses everything that we've looked at in today's lesson.

So injury prevention.

Let's have a look at the summary of today's lesson.

Why don't you read along with me? Injuries are an unfortunate occurrence in sport and physical activity, but we can use injury prevention methods to reduce the number and frequency.

Training should be planned to avoid over training by using the principle of progressive overload and allowing for appropriate periods of rest and recovery.

Wearing suitable clothing and footwear for the activity, keeping hydrated, and using taping or bracing can also prevent injury.

Using correct technique is important for injury prevention, especially with heavy lifting where a spotter may also be used to ensure safety.

And that brings us to the end of today's lesson.

Hopefully there's loads in there that you can use in your own life, in your own training plans, in your own weight sessions if you go to the gym, in your own sports, when you consider what you're wearing for a sport or what you're gonna put on your feet, and so on and so forth.

And maybe you can help advise other people also, because what we want to do is reduce the number of injuries that happen in PE, sport, and physical activity.

But as we said at the beginning, it's not always possible to prevent every injury.

Try your best to keep avoiding those injuries and hopefully that means I'll see you in another lesson in the near future.

Bye-bye.