Preventing Sports Injuries to Improve Athletes’ Lives

From concussions to torn ACLs, the sports section is often jam-packed with sports traumas. But anyone with an active lifestyle can experience an injury, which can lead to health issues ranging from osteoarthritis to Alzheimer’s disease, and ultimately a lower quality of life. Even swimming, a relatively low-impact sport, can cause a range of muscle or tendon injuries.  Some reports suggest as many as 91% of swimmers experience shoulder pain. Reports like these have inspired exercise scientist Travis Pollen, PhD, to learn more about the underlying conditions that make these events more likely to occur.

Athletic injuries can have far-reaching negative consequences in terms of athletic performance, long-term physical impairments, mental health and finances. The key to minimizing these consequences is to avoid getting injured in the first place. To avoid injury, athletes should take a multifaceted approach focusing on their athletic and overall lifestyle choices. This should include monitoring and managing the volume and intensity of their training to avoid overuse. An athlete should prioritize proper warm up before each practice and competition to prepare the body for the activity.

Supplementing sports practice with strength training can increase athletic resilience. Moreover, these athletes should get plenty of high-quality sleep, fuel their bodies with nutritious food and drink and manage their stress. If an athlete does sustain an injury, the “glass half full” approach would be to use the opportunity to address their weaknesses and come back even better than before.

When I was a competitive swimmer in high school and college, I noticed many of my teammates were plagued by injuries, particularly to their shoulders. I was lucky enough not to struggle with shoulder injuries during my career, and I wondered what factors predisposed certain athletes to injury and others not. I suspect that I managed to stay injury free thanks to many of the same prevention strategies mentioned earlier. For example, I kept a meticulous training log of all my sessions and I invested in a personal trainer to learn to strength train and effectively design my lifting programs. I was the first swimmer in the pool every practice to ensure I got a long warm-up. I even read sports nutrition and meditation books to maximize my recovery. Basically, I was obsessed with minimizing my injury risk and optimizing my athletic performance. Once my career was over, I wanted to help other athletes do the same. This led me to pursue graduate work in biomechanics and rehabilitation science – to ensure the guidance I provided would be of the utmost scientific rigor.

Athletes’ psychological disposition can affect their injury risk. In sports injury research, there’s a short survey called the Perceived Susceptibility to Sport Injury questionnaire. This questionnaire asks athletes to rate their likelihood of injury on a five-point scale. In a study I conducted on college swimmers, I found that athletes who believed themselves to be less likely to sustain an injury in the upcoming season actually ended up being more likely to sustain an injury. This phenomenon was also observed in a study from over 20 years ago of youth soccer players. Theoretically, we think what occurs is that athletes who believe they are less likely to get injured may be less inclined to engage in preventive measures. In turn, this lack of attention to prevention increases their likelihood of injury. If the theory is correct, it’s possible that simply educating athletes about their risk could better motivate them to engage in injury prevention and thereby reduce injuries. This area of research – psychological risk factors for injury – warrants far more research in the future.

Outside of my research, I’m passionate about teaching my students. Many of our Exercise Science students go on to pursue graduate work and careers as healthcare practitioners. I’m constantly trying to improve my craft to make the most of the opportunity to impact our students during such a formative moment in their education.

My best memory from teaching was catching up with a group of students on our Center City campus about a year after they transitioned from our undergraduate program to our Doctor of Physical Therapy program. I remember the students excitedly coming up to me to tell me they were constantly revisiting the materials from my Exercise Prescription course to brainstorm exercises for patients. My ultimate goal with that course was to create resources the students could refer to long after the class ended. It was gratifying to know the course was helping beyond the classroom walls. This type of feedback always makes me happy.

One of my role models is my dissertation chair, Sheri Silfies, PhD. Dr. Silfies is an expert on the neuroscience and biomechanics of persistent low back pain. Dr. Silfies gave me the freedom and guidance to do the exact doctoral study I wanted to do in terms of investigating biomechanical and psychological risk factors for injury in swimmers. Her expertise spans so many areas, which motivated me to expand my own knowledge by exploring a range of research topics. She inspired me through her work ethic and breadth of knowledge. She was also well-organized and thorough in the classroom. I strive to bring that same level of clarity and preparation to my teaching. She demonstrated an exceptional commitment to her work, which set a great example for me. 

My advice to young researchers is to find research you’re passionate about. When you do that, it hardly feels like work.