Athletics, hockey, Rugby 7s and basketball are the sports at the 2018 Commonwealth Games where athletes are most likely to incur hamstring injuries.
Griffith University sports lecturer Dr Steven Duhig, from the School of Allied Health Sciences, says these are the featured sports which involve high-speed running, a risk factor in developing the traumatic injury.
“The hamstring strain injury is a common and problematic injury across sports involving high-speed running. Once an initial injury occurs, the propensity for reoccurrence is high.”
To coincide with 2018 Commonwealth Games, Dr Duhig and Dr Matthew Bourne, also from the School of Allied Health Sciences, are hosting a Hamstring Injury Symposium on Friday, April 6 at Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus.
“With presentations from leading sports medicine professionals from Australia and internationally, the symposium will provide an overview of current sports medicine research for the support staff connected with each of the visiting teams in the 2018 Commonwealth Games,’’ Dr Bourne said.
Dr Bourne, whose current research examines strengthening exercises to prevent hamstring injury, said large-scale strength training interventions have been shown to reduce hamstring injury rates by 50-70%,
“But compliance to these programs is poor, particularly in elite sport. Instead, injury prevention strategies are typically underpinned by clinical assumptions and personal opinions and this needs to change.
“This event aims to equip coaches and sports medicine professionals with a comprehensive understanding of the current best evidence for the prevention and rehabilitation of hamstring injury in high-performance sport.”
Speakers include:
Tony Shield (QUT) — The knowns and unknowns of hamstring injury prevention
Geoff Verrall (South Australia Sports Institute) — Hamstring injury mechanisms
Peter Blanch (Brisbane Lions) — Training loads as an injury risk factor, treatment and injury prevention strategy
Matthew Bourne (Griffith University) — Evidence based framework for strengthening exercisesto prevent hamstring injury
Steven Duhig (Griffith University) —Impact of hamstring architecture on sprint performance and recovery
Panel Discussion: Where do we go from here? (Peter Blanch, Julie Hides, Tony Shield and Stuart Butler (GB Athletics).
Professor David Lloyd – Future research directions
WHAT: Hamstring Injury Symposium — The Science Behind the Medicine
WHEN: Friday, April 6 2018, 8.30am-1pm
WHERE: Griffith University Gold Coast campus, G40 Lecture Theatre