Effects of Home Confinement on Training Habits and Injury in Long Distance Runners
>> December 18, 2020
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, policies of social distancing became commonplace in different places or countries.
Athletes who are typically active and 'busy' (training and competition) were suddenly required to stay at home.
The influences of such restrictions in training habits and injury in youth long-distance runners were unknown.
A recent study by Bazett-Jones and colleagues (link below) found that COVID-19 social distancing restrictions significantly impacted youth long-distance runners' training habits, injuries, and care seeking behaviors.
Specifically, during the confinement period, youth long-distance runners decreased their training activities (as follows), possibly due to extrinsic factors such as motivation.
- Weekly running distance
- Number of weekly runs
- Number of weekly hard runs
Running habits and injury incidence before and during COVID-19 social distancing restrictions.
Number of self-reported injuries before and during COVID-19 restrictions by location and injury type.
From one perspective, reduced injuries (because of home confinement) is good. However, in a case of you got injured during the quarantine period, it would be more challenging for athletes to receive a proper treatment.
Indeed, the study also reported that the runners, actually reduced their visits to health care providers during quarantine by 3.6 times (i.e. 58.5% from 16.4% before lockdown), most probably due to movement restrictions, etc.
The outcomes suggest that "strategic plans to maintain access to medical services" during such event (quarantine) is necessary.
In summary, the authors highlighted that "COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant decreases in both training and injuries."
The authors further clafiried that their findings were different compared to previous reports in an adult population.
Read more: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7739837/
