Injuries are the bane of any athlete. There is nothing worse than sacrificing the joys of a normal life to pursue athletic excellence, then have it all be taken away in such a short moment. It’s high time to invest in some injury bug repellant!

1) Freak Accidents

These are the odd, weird, tragic occurrences that are a natural part of being an athlete. There is no way to prepare for these and the best way to get through them is realizing they’re not under your control.

2) Increasing Volume and Intensity at the same time

Volume is the amount of work you do (amount of reps in a set). Intensity is how hard you do that work (50% max vs 100% max). When you are increasing one category you want to keep the other category stable or decreasing. When you increase both at the same time you generate a higher percentage risk of injury.

3) Increasing Volume OR Intensity too quickly

If you are javelin thrower just entering off season training, you do not take full approach throws like you would in the spring. Your body has not been adequately trained to handle that level of stress and injury is almost eminent if continually repeated.

4) Not doing the Little Things

UO head track coach Robert Johnson describes the “little things” as the following: eating right, hydration, sleep, stretching, mobility, icing/heating, etc. These things happen in the 80% of the day you aren’t at practice and when  lacking, put you at higher risk. How hard is it to drink water?

In my opinion these are the four major ways athletes get injured….So what if you are coming into this with some injury baggage? Well, unless you are a professional athlete with an individualized training plan, then you are going to have to do extra work. Remember the little things? You now have more of them to do and it is your responsibility to do them to fit into your coaches training plan. It will pay off when you are on the podium.

Schaudt is out!