Saltus Performance

‘Injury prevention’ is a term commonly used in fitness and athletic training vocabulary. But what does it really mean - are we actually able to fully “prevent” injuries?

Both yes and no.

Nothing is able to prevent 100% of injuries from occurring. Even the strongest and most well-conditioned athletes will occasionally get hurt. Sports are inherently chaotic, often involving a multitude of factors outside of our control like the playing environment or other players’ actions.

But we can prepare ourselves better to deal with this chaos.

Getting stronger and more conditioned means you’re less likely to be injured from the same action or stimulus. It’s that simple. Studies have shown that strength training is the most effective injury prevention strategy (even compared to others that may come to your mind first like stretching or warming-up).

An athlete’s training in the weight room should be just as focused on conditioning to better handle the load of practice and matches as much as to directly improve performance. How do we do that?

✅Build muscle strength
Stronger muscles are better able to effectively absorb and redistribute forces to take stress off of your joints

✅Increase connective tissue resiliency
Our tendons, ligaments, and fascia that hold our musculoskeletal system together also adapt to strength training and become more resistant to strain

✅Refined movement mechanics
Improving sprinting, jumping/landing, and lifting mechanics can decrease the “wear and tear” impacts of repetitive motions and help lower the likelihood of chronic pain/injuries

✅Improved load capacity/tolerance
Injury rates increase significantly with fatigue - a body that is better able to endure practice and match demands will break down less

Even though we can’t fully prevent injuries from occurring, we can significantly lower their likelihood, as well as decrease our recovery time if an injury does occur.