Recovery and Injury Prevention
Recovery and Injury Prevention
This domain tests how to restore performance and reduce injury risk. Questions cover sleep, recovery modalities, load management, screening and prevention programmes.
Core rules and concepts
- Sleep is a primary recovery tool; adolescents generally need about 8–10 hours and adults 7–9 hours.
- Recovery includes active recovery, hydration, carbohydrate and protein replacement, compression, massage, cold/heat and relaxation; evidence varies, so use them as adjuncts, not substitutes for sleep and nutrition.
- Overtraining signs: persistent fatigue, poor sleep, mood disturbance, performance drop and frequent illness. Distinguish overreaching (short-term) from overtraining syndrome (longer).
- Injury prevention: warm-up, progressive load, technique, footwear, strength and balance work, screening and safe surfaces.
- Acute soft-tissue injury is managed with protection, relative rest, ice, compression and elevation; avoid harmful early heat and massage.
- Sudden workload spikes are associated with injury; increase weekly load gradually.
Worked example
A school runner reports shin pain increasing over two weeks. The trainer checks training load, footwear, recent surface change and calf strength, then reduces running volume for 5–7 days, keeps pain-free cross-training and adds calf raises. Reasoning: identify and modify load and intrinsic risk factors before returning to full mileage.
Traps
- Prescribing complete rest for every ache; relative rest preserves fitness.
- Using ice as a substitute for load management.
- Ignoring sleep and mood when performance falls.