From: National Strength and Conditioning Association Journal 12(3):32-34 (1990)


Weightroom Safety:


Four-year study of weightroom injuries in

a national sample of college football teams

 

Eric D. Zemper, Ph.D.

Exercise Research Associates of Oregon

Eugene, Oregon


During the past four years, injury data has been collected from a national sample of college football teams by the Athletic Injury Monitoring System (AIMS). The data, from fall preseason through regular and postseason play, includes information on injuries that occurred while players were involved in weight training activities. This article summarizes the data on weight training injuries that were recorded as a part of this four-year prospective study of injuries in college football.

Subjects and Methods

The data used in this report were collected over the first four years of operation of AIMS (1986 through 1989 seasons). AIMS meets the major criteria for reliable studies of sports injury rates outlined in 1987 by the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (1). A stratified sample of National Collegiate Athletic Association and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics members sponsoring intercollegiate football was used, with stratification based on four geographic regions and three NCAA/NAIA divisions. This sample was designed to be approximately a 5 percent proportionally representative sample of all intercollegiate football teams, both NCAA and NAIA, and the results should therefore be generalizable to the total population of intercollegiate football players. The study population included all intercollegiate football players at these institutions. During the 1986 season 32 teams with a total of 3,431 players participated, during 1987 there were 27 teams with a total of 2,798 players, in 1988 there were 21 teams with 2,237 players involved and in 1989 a total of 25 teams with 2,442 players participated in the injury surveillance system. The average squad size during this study was 103.9 players.

Prior to the start of each season, the head athletic trainer of each participating team was sent copies of forms for reporting exposure and injury data, along with detailed instructions on how to use the forms. On a weekly basis throughout the season, from the first preseason practice until the final regular season or postseason game, the trainers returned a form listing the number of practices and any games played during the week, and the number of players participating in each, as well as separate forms detailing each football-related injury that kept a player from full participation for one day or more. Upon arrival in our office, each form was screened for completeness and consistency before being entered into a computer file for later analysis. In the event of incomplete or inconsistent data, individual trainers were contacted for clarification. Over the period of the data collection effort reported here, 98.9 percent of the weekly reports were submitted by the involved institutions.

General results from the first two years and the first three years of this project have been reported elsewhere (2, 3), as well as results of special studies of cerebral concussions in various brands of football helmets (4), and the efficacy of preventive knee braces (5, 6).

Results

The injury report form contained responses to indicate whether the injury occurred while weight training and/or in the weightroom, which allows the tracking of injuries involved in weight training as presented here. AIMS reports injury rates as the number of injuries per 1,000 athlete-exposures, which is a more precise method of reporting injury rates than the usual method of injuries per 100 participants commonly seen in the literature (2). An athlete-exposure (A-E) is one athlete taking part in one practice or competition where he or she is exposed to the possibility of being injured. Since weight training is a part of practice activities, this report will deal only with practice exposures. Over the four years there was a total of 742,720 A-E in practices for the 10,908 players in the sample. Assuming that weight training is done as a part of practice activity on an average of twice a week throughout the season, there was an estimated total of 297,088 A-E involving weightroom activities in this sample. During the period of this study there was a total of 38 time-loss injuries reported as occurring in the weightroom and/or during weight training (out of a total of 5,158 reported injuries). This results in an injury rate of 0.13 injuries per 1,000 A-E or 0.35 injuries per 100 players per season. Weightroom injuries comprise 0.74 percent of the total reported time-loss injuries during football season.

The distribution of injuries by type is presented in Table 1. Fifteen of the 38 injuries (39.5 percent) involved the low back. Two of the injuries were season-ending injuries (lower leg fracture and an L-4 disc rupture). Of the remaining 36 injuries, the average time loss was 7.4 days (range = 1 to 42 days). The distribution of injuries by player position is presented in Table 2. Half of the injuries occurred to offensive and defensive linemen.


Table 1. Distribution of Weightroom Injuries by Type

 

Injury Type

Number of Injuries

Low back muscle strain

8

Low back ligament sprain

4

Neck muscle strain

3

Heat exhaustion

3

Upper back muscle strain

2

Low back disc injury

2

Patella subluxation

2

Low back spasm

1

Head - cerebral concussion (first degree)

1

Shoulder ligament sprain

1

Shoulder muscle strain

1

Shoulder separation

1

Shoulder tendonitis

1

Pectoralis muscle strain

1

Spine - ligament sprain

1

Hernia

1

Knee tendonitis

1

Knee - torn cartilage

1

Lower leg fracture

1

Ankle sprain

1

Toe contusion

1

Total

38


While college football players spend a reasonable amount of time in the weightroom, it does not appear from this data that they are incurring an inordinate number of injuries while there. Over the four-year period of this study involving a total of 105 teams and 10,908 players, there were only 38 time-loss injuries reported in the weightroom. This represents only 0.74 percent of the total injuries reported, and 1.3 percent of the practice injuries. The injury rates of 0.13 injuries per 1,000 A-E in the weightroom and 0.35 per 100 players per season both indicate that the average team can expect to experience about one time-loss injury in the weightroom every three years. If your team is experiencing a much greater rate of time-loss injuries in your weight-room during the fall season, it might be appropriate to review your safety procedures or your players' mental attitudes toward weight training. They may erroneously report injuries so they can be excused from the activity.

Table 1 shows that about 40 percent of the reported injuries involved the low back, which probably is not too surprising. Low back injuries actually comprise close to 50 percent of what are probably "technique-related" injuries when you exclude what appear to be seven nontechnique-related "accidents." Four of these seven injuries (the cerebral concussion, lower leg fracture, ankle sprain and the toe contusion) may have been due to dropped weights. The sprained ankle was due to a plate left on the floor that an athlete stepped on. The three cases of heat exhaustion were avoidable by paying closer attention to the room environment and ensuring that the athletes were properly hydrated.


Table 2. Distribution of Weightroom Injuries by Player Position

 

Player Position

Number of Injuries

Defensive down lineman

10

Running back

6

Flanker/wide receiver

4

Linebacker

3

Defensive halfback/cornerback

3

Offensive guard

3

Offensive tackle

3

Offensive tight end

2

Center

1

Quarterback

1

Slotback/wingback

1

Defensive safety

1

Total

38


It is evident from Table 2 that half of the reported injuries in this study involved offensive and defensive linemen. Since these positions account for less than 40 percent of the players in the sample, they appear to be incurring more than their share of time-loss injuries. The most likely explanation is that players in these positions tend to spend more time in the weightroom and generally are lifting more total weight.

This report is based on data collected over a four-year period from a national sample of college football teams as part of a prospective epidemiological study of football injuries being conducted by the Athletic Injury Monitoring System. The results indicate that the rate of time-loss injuries during weightroom activities is quite low (less than 1 percent of the total football injuries reported), although the injury rate could be reduced to even lower levels through more rigorous attention to proper procedures in the weightroom.


References

1. Thompson, N., B. Halperin and W.W. Curl et al. 1987. High school football injuries: evaluation. American Journal of Sports Medicine. 15(2):117-124.

2. Zemper, E.D. 1989. Injury rates in a national sample of college football teams: a two-year prospective study. The Physician and Sportsmedicine. 17(11):100-113.

3. Zemper, E.D. 1989. A prospective study of injury rates in a national sample of American college football teams. In: Proceedings of the First IOC World Congress on Sport Sciences. Colorado Springs: U.S. Olympic Committee. p. 194-195.

4. Zemper, E.D. 1989. Cerebral concussion rates in various brands of football helmets. Athletic Training. 24(2):133-137.

5. Zemper, E.D. 1989. A prospective study of prophylactic knee braces in a national sample of American college football players. In: Proceedings of the First IOC World Congress on Sport Sciences. Colorado Springs: U.S. Olympic Committee. p. 202-203.

6. Zemper, E.D. 1990. A two-year prospective study of prophylactic knee braces in a national sample of college football players. Sports Training, Medicine and Rehabilitation. 1:287-296.