Tralee Triathlon Club Lecture Series
Fergus Foley – Injury Prevention
Great start to our lecture series with our club sponsor physiotherapist Fergus Foley. We started with a nice cup of tea/coffee and biscuits. Fergus then gave his lecture, took questions on related topics as he went and had a general Q&A session to finish off. The topics covered in the lecture were as follows:
- Classification of injuries
- General effects of injuries
- Prevention of injuries
- Physical condition
- Basic principles of running
- Stretching
- Specific Sporting Injuries
- Nutrition
The one strong message that I took away from the lecture is the importance of stretching in injury prevention. Fergus emphasised this point on several occasions . He said that 90% of the runners he and other health professionals in the town are treating for injuries are not stretching at all or not doing it properly. His message was to warm up adequately, to then stretch before doing your actual workout and make sure to also cool down after exercise rather than coming to a dead stop. Warming up could be a gentle run for 10 mins or as the Australian Rules footballers do by taking a very hot shower for 3 minutes before launching into a stretching routine. It is all about getting the muscles to warm up. Warming up increases blood flow, which increases the temperature in the muscle, which makes the collagen fibers more elastic like a rubber band.
The most common injury in cycling is a broken collar bone which as you can guess is due to having an accident where you come off the bike. The avoidable falls are those that are caused by fatigue. e.g. not unclipping your shoes in time. In order to prevent this it is important to work on conditioning and balance so the body has the capability to react properly when you are fatigued.
And of course a sports injury can be related to something else other than that activity as Fergus recounted a story as to how Man Utd players had a sudden rise in neck injuries a few years ago. The root of the problem after much scratching of heads was identified as mobile phones. After training sessions the players used to meet the fans and sign autographs for up to an hour. At the same time as signing most of them were on the phone balancing it in the crook of their shoulder while cocking their heads to one side. The incidence of neck injuries declined by 90% once they were all provided with hands free kits.
And that’s just a small snippet of what was covered.
Fergus is the official physiotherapy partner for Tralee Triathlon Club. His contact details are as follows:
Fergus Foley M.I.S.C.P. Charted Physiotherapist,
Riverview, Clahane, Ballyard, Tralee
Tel; 066-7185533 / Mob; 087-2239910
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