HOW TO SAFELY INCREASE TRAINING LOAD IN ORDER TO AVOID OVERUSE INJURY
Overuse injuries occur when the tendons, ligaments and muscles are fatigued excessively and repeatedly due to inadequate recovery. Increasing training load is important for continued progression but this needs to be approached smartly and safely to avoid injury.
Steps to avoid overuse injuries:
- Increase training load by MAXIMUM 10% per week
For example, if you were to be running 20 km’s a week then the following week you will only increase to 22kms. - Make time for adequate rest
Although your body is amazing at adapting to the stresses of exercise, adaptation takes time. Athletes should implement one full day of rest for every 7 to 10 training days. High intensity training causes increased stress on the tendons in particular, due to the high volume of energy transferred through them. In this case you will need at least 48 hours recovery between high intensity sessions to allow the tendon to recover. - Learn to differentiate between good and bad pain
You will feel good pain as a result of progressive overload – safe progression of training. Soreness that lingers constant throughout a workout is an indication that you are pushing your body beyond its ability to recover – bad pain. - Training Loads
Work with acute and chronic workloads. Acute workload is the training load you have adhered to over the most recent week. Chronic workload is the average of each week’s workload over the last 4 weeks. When using training load to minimize injury it is important to consider your acute:chronic training ratio.In other words, if your training load over your most recent week is more than the average load you’ve trained over the past 4-week risk of injury is increased.
To learn more about safely increasing your training loads and more importantly prevent injury. Speak to one of our experienced Physiotherapist or Exercise Physiologist.
