Modelling the relationships between volume, intensity and injury-risk in professional rugby league players

Title
Modelling the relationships between volume, intensity and injury-risk in professional rugby league players
Publication Date
2019
Author(s)
Cummins, Cloe
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1960-8916
Email: ccummin5@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:ccummin5
Welch, Mitchell
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4220-8734
Email: mwelch8@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:mwelch8
Inkster, Brendan
Cupples, Balin
Weaving, Dan
Jones, Ben
King, Doug
Murphy, Aron
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Elsevier Australia
Place of publication
Australia
DOI
10.1016/j.jsams.2018.11.028
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/26371
Abstract
Objective This study aimed to: (a) identify the association between external-workloads and injury-risk in the subsequent week; and (b) understand the effectiveness of workload variables in establishing injury-risk. Design Retrospective cohort study. Methods Workload and injury data (soft-tissue) were collected from forty-eight professional male rugby league players. Load variables included duration (min), total distance (m), relative distance (m min−1), high speed distance ([m]>20 km h−1), very-high speed distance ([m]>25 km h−1), acceleration and deceleration efforts (count) and PlayerLoad (Arbitrary Unit: AU). Cumulative two-, three- and four-weekly loads; Acute:Chronic Workload Ratio (ACWR); Mean-Standard Deviation Workload Ratio (MSWR) and strain values were calculated and divided into three equally-sized bins (low, moderate and high). Generalised Estimating Equations analysed relationships between workload variables and injury probability in the subsequent week. Results Injury-risk increased alongside increases in the ACWR for duration, total distance and PlayerLoad. Conversely, injury-risk decreased (Area Under Curve: 0.569–0.585) with increases in the four-weekly duration, total distance, accelerations, decelerations and PlayerLoad. For relative distance, high four-weekly workloads (high: >60 m min−1) demonstrated a positive association with injury-risk, whilst high two-weekly loads (high: >82 m min−1) were negatively associated. Conclusions A range of external workload metrics and summary statistics demonstrate either positive or negative associations with injury-risk status. Such findings provide the framework for the development of decision-support systems in which external workload metrics (e.g. total or high speed distance) can be uniquely and routinely monitored across a range of summary statistics (i.e. cumulative weekly loads and ACWR) in order to optimise player performance and welfare.
Link
Citation
Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, v.22, p. 653-660
ISSN
1878-1861
1440-2440
Start page
653
End page
660
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

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