Exercise Physiology

Question 1

What are the two types of injuries?

Answer 1

• Acute
• Chronic

Question 2

What is an Acute Injury?

Answer 2

• Occurs suddenly during exercise/competition
• e.g. sprained ankle or torn ligament
• Pain is felt straight away & often severe

Question 3

What is a chronic injury?

Answer 3

• Occurs after playing sport or exercise for a long time-are often called over use injury. T

Develop slowly, can last a long time & are often ignored by performers, which makes the injury worse, causing more problems

Question 4

What signs can a performer who experiences an acute injury show?

Answer 4

• Sudden, severe pain
• Swelling around the injured site
• Not being able to bear weight
• Restricted movement
• Extreme leg or arm weakness
• A protruding bone or a joint that is visibly out of place

Question 5

Give some examples of acute injuries.

Answer 5

• Fractures
• Dislocations
• Strains
• Sprains

Question 6

What is a fracture?

Answer 6

• break or crack in bone- a bone can fracture in different ways.
• A simple or a closed fracture is a clean break to a bone that doesn’t penetrate through the skin/ damage any surrounding tissue.

Question 7

What type of fractures are there?

Answer 7

• Comminuted- Bone breaks off splinters into 3 or more pieces
  Spiral- Winding break, e.g. a tackle in football, stood on foot & leg twists underneath defender/tackler
  Longitudinal- Break occurs along length of the bone
  Buckles- Occurs in children where bone deforms but doesn’t brake e.g. when you fall but not that hard
  Hairline- Partial fracture of the bone that is difficult to detect
  Greenstick-Occur in children where the bone partly fractures on one side but doesn’t break completely.
  This is because in young children the bone is softer and more elastic so it can bend

Question 8

What is a dislocation?

Answer 8

• Dislocations occur at joints
• It happens when ends of bones are forced out of position.
• Dislocations often occur with fall/ contact with another player,
  for example, in football tackles they are often very easy to see as the bone looks visibly out of place

Question 9

What are strains?

Answer 9

• Often called ‘pulled’/ ‘torn’ muscle
• Strain occurs when muscle fibres are stretched too far & tear.
• Occur regularly In team games from contact w other players & where the performer continually accelerates & deaccelerates suddenly.
• Elite athletes also prone to strains where intensity of training is high & the overuse of specific muscle groups occurs regularly.

Question 10

What is a sprain?

Answer 10

• Occur to ligaments which are strong bands of tissue around joints that join bone to bone.
• When excessive force is applied to a joint, sprain can occur where ligament is stretched too far or tears.
• In sport sprained ankle is v common injury. E.g. swimming, sprinting, explosive event athletes

Question 11

What signs are shown with chronic injuries?

Answer 11

• Pain when you compete or exercise
• A dull ache when you rest
• Swelling

Question 12

What is achilles tendonitis?

Answer 12

• Tendonitis is an over-use injury that causes pain & inflammation of the tendon.
• The Achilles tendon is located at back of ankle & is the largest tendon in the body.

Connects gastrocnemius to heel bone & is used for walking, running & jumping, so when we do a lot of regular activity it can be prone to tendonitis.

Question 13

What is a stress fracture?

Answer 13

• An over-use injury where area becomes tender & swollen.
• Stress fractures are most common in weight-bearing bones of legs, often when there is an increase in amount of exercise, or intensity of an activity is increased too quickly.
  Happens when muscles become fatigued, so they are no longer able to absorb added shock of exercise.

Question 14

What is tennis elbow?

Answer 14

• Over-use injury & occurs in the muscles attached to the elbow that are used to straighten wrist.
• The muscles & tendons become inflamed & tiny tears occur on the outside of the elbow. Area becomes very sore & tender.

medical term for tennis elbow is lateral epicondylitis

Any activity that places repeated stress on the elbow can cause tennis elbow and, as the name suggests, this injury often occurs in tennis

Question 15

What injury prevention methods are there?

Answer 15

• Screening
• Protective equipment
• Warm up
• Flexability Training
• Taping & Bracing

Question 16

What is screening?

Answer 16

• Screening can be used to help identify those at risk of complications from exercise
• It can be used to detect a problem early before any symptoms, occur

For example, many young elite performers have CRY heart screening.

Question 17

What is CRY & how does screening help this?

Answer 17

• ‘Cardiac risk in the young’
• An ECG is used to assess & monitor a performers heart
• Test is encouraged by most sport governing bodies due to demands of elite sport & stress it can place on heart
• Screening can also identify musculoskeletal condition of athletes which can highlight past/ current injuries- enabling performer to select relevant training programme that will prevent further injury
• Can also be used to prevent injury

Question 18

What are the disadvantages of screening?

Answer 18

• Some screening tests are not 100% accurate & may miss a problem (false negative)
• Or can identify a problem that doesn’t exist (false positive)
• Can also increase anxiety when athlete finds out they have health problem or are more susceptible to injury.

Question 19

How can protective equipment prevent injuries? Give some examples of protective equipment.

Answer 19

• Wearing the correct protective equipment can help reduce injuries
  e.g:
  Football-Ankle & shin pads
  Rugby-Scrum cap, gum shiel, body armour
  Cricket-Batting pads, thigh pads,box,helmet,gloves
  Hockey- Leg guard, shin guard, pads, kickers, face mask for short corner, gloves, helmet
  Squash- Eye guards

Question 20

How can a warm up prevent injury?

Answer 20

• Should always be carried out before start of training session.
• WU will reduce possibility of injury by increasing elasticity of muscle tissue.
• Happens because a warm-up will increase the body’s muscle temperature.
• HR & respiratory rate also increase, which increase blood flow & therefore the delivery of oxygen & nutrients to the working muscle.
  Preparing muscles, tendons & joints for strenuous activity

Question 21

What is flexability training & what are the types of stretches involved in this training?

Answer 21

• Flexability training should involve the joints & muscles that will be most active during the activity
  Types of stretches:
• Active
• Passive
• Static
• Ballistic

Question 22

What is active & passive stretching?

Answer 22

• Active- Involves performer working on one joint, pushing it beyond its point of resistance, lengthening muscles & conncective tissue around it
• Passive- When a stretch occurs w help of an external force such as another part of your body, a partner or a wall

an example is holding your leg up high in the air

Question 23

What is static & ballistic stretching?

Answer 23

• Static stretching- Stretching while not moving- involves holding a muscle in the furthest point you can for up to 30 secs e.g. trying to touch your toes
• Ballistic stretching- Involves performing a stretch w swinging or bouncing movements to push a body part even further
• It is important that this type of stretch shld only be performed by an individual who is extremely flexible such as a gymnast

Question 24

What is taping and how can this prevent injury?

Answer 24

• Taping a weak joint can help w support & stability to reduce risk of injury
• Taping can also be used on muscles- tape used for muscles is more elastic than used on joints & is applied directly to the skin to provide controlled support as muscle moves
• Called Kinesiology tape & expands as the muscle contracts

Question 25

What is bracing & how can this solve/prevent injury?

Answer 25

- Bracing is much more substantial than taping, often involving hinged supports- used to give extra stability to muscles & joints that are weak or have been previously injured - Their aim is to prevent further injury ## Footnote Braces for ankle & knee are most common in sport