LOW-BACK-PAIN AND OTHER OVERUSE INJURIES IN A GROUP OF JAPANESE TRIATHLETES

Objective-To document the incidence of low back pain and other overuse injuries in a group of triathletes, and to investigate any associatio ns with various physical and triathlon related factors. Methods-By mea ns of a questionnaire, the physical characteristics, training habits, and the incidences of overuse injuries of 92 Japanese triathletes (70 males, 22 females) were documented. Student's t and chi(2) tests were used to determine the significance of any associations with injury inc idence, as well as differences between subjects experiencing or not ex periencing low back pain in the previous year. Results-Low back pain w as experienced by 32% of subjects in the previous year. The majority ( 54%) of low back pain episodes lasted under seven days, suggesting mai nly soft tissue involvement, and 19% lasted over three months, suggest ing involvement of the intervertebral discs. Weekly trunk flexor muscl e training frequency was significantly greater (P = 0.035) for the low back pain subjects. Close to significant differences for average week ly cycling time, trunk flexor muscle training time, and low intensity aerobic training, as well near significant associations for weight tra ining and average weekly triathlon training load, were also found. No other factors were significantly associated with low back pain. Low ba ck injuries accounted for 28% of all injuries. Only the knee was a mor e common single site of injury (33%). Conclusions-The three most commo n injuries suffered by the triathletes were of the knee, back and shou lder. The low back pain suffered by many triathletes could be of a pot entially serious nature. It is suggested that cycling is a major risk factor for low back pain in triathletes.