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Training the smart way
Volume 50, No. 10, June 14, 2007 |
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Training for sport or physical fitness – and preventing injuries – deserves a long-time approach not a quick-fix solution, urges exercise physiologist LEUT Tracey Elliott.
LEUT Elliott is the Officer Commanding Physical and Recreational Training at ADFA, where her team’s new approach to effective sports and fitness injury management has achieved record lows of 9-17% in the incidence of first time injuries seen at ADFA.
“It was a matter of re-structuring the program to cut back on levels of intensity and impact over the initial training period,” LEUT Elliott said.
“First-year students at ADFA undergo an intense six-week training period known as YOFT, Year One Familiarisation Training. During this period it was decided that we would modify the PT program to implement several preventative strategies.”
The overall aim was to build people progressively towards a standard benchmark test of an initial fitness assessment (IFA) at the end of the YOFT period. After YOFT the intensity of the PT program was increased slowly and the cadets were monitored through a series of incremental tests.
“The first injury surveillance report for 2007 showed a significant drop in new injuries from 140 in 2006 to 64 in 2007, (males 35% and females 66% in 2006 to males 9% and females 17% in 2007),” LEUT Elliott said.
“Knee injuries remain the most common, accounting for 18% of overall injuries. Shin splint injuries were reduced from 27 in 2006 to 2 in 2007. In 2006 there were 1064 days of restriction recorded over the YOFT period but for 2007 only 239 lost days were recorded.
The new cadets are enjoying sport to a far greater extent and total injuries are the lowest recorded since 2001. |
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