Warmups that improve strength, awareness, and neuromuscular control might prevent injury
Four articles on PainSci cite Soligard 2008: 1. Sports Injury Prevention Tips 2. Mobilize! 3. Quite a Stretch 4. The Complete Guide to Muscle Strains
PainSci commentary on Soligard 2008: ?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided wherever possible.
Research has shown for years now that good ol’ stretching doesn’t really prevent athletic injuries. So what does? Warmups that “improve strength, awareness, and neuromuscular control” might just do the trick. Practicing coordination and control, basically (see Panics et al). In 2008, Norwegian researchers compared injuries in over a thousand female footballers who participated in such a warmup for a season, to another several hundred who didn’t. Athletes who warmed up had fewer traumatic injuries and fewer overuse injuries. Moreover, the injuries they did have were less severe. Static stretching was not part of the warmup, but “active” stretching was (i.e. Mobilize!).
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of a comprehensive warm-up programme designed to reduce the risk of injuries in female youth football.
DESIGN: Cluster randomised controlled trial with clubs as the unit of randomisation.
SETTING: 125 football clubs from the south, east, and middle of Norway (65 clusters in the intervention group; 60 in the control group) followed for one league season (eight months).
PARTICIPANTS: 1892 female players aged 13-17 (1055 players in the intervention group; 837 players in the control group).
INTERVENTION: A comprehensive warm-up programme to improve strength, awareness, and neuromuscular control during static and dynamic movements.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Injuries to the lower extremity (foot, ankle, lower leg, knee, thigh, groin, and hip).
RESULTS: During one season, 264 players had relevant injuries: 121 players in the intervention group and 143 in the control group (rate ratio 0.71, 95% confidence interval 0.49 to 1.03). In the intervention group there was a significantly lower risk of injuries overall (0.68, 0.48 to 0.98), overuse injuries (0.47, 0.26 to 0.85), and severe injuries (0.55, 0.36 to 0.83).
CONCLUSION: Though the primary outcome of reduction in lower extremity injury did not reach significance, the risk of severe injuries, overuse injuries, and injuries overall was reduced. This indicates that a structured warm-up programme can prevent injuries in young female football players.
related content
- “Effect of proprioception training on knee joint position sense in female team handball players,” Panics et al, British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2008.
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- Inciting events associated with lumbar disc herniation. Suri 2010 Spine J.
- Prediction of an extruded fragment in lumbar disc patients from clinical presentations. Pople 1994 Spine (Phila Pa 1976).
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- Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of universal school-based mindfulness training compared with normal school provision in reducing risk of mental health problems and promoting well-being in adolescence: the MYRIAD cluster randomised controlled trial. Kuyken 2022 Evid Based Ment Health.