Management of Sports injuries in Fitness Club Users

With regard to the importance and effect of physical activities on different body systems, fortunately, the number of people using fitness clubs has increased significantly during the past few years. However, the number of injuries has also increased, which there are no accurate data available about these injuries. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the common physical injuries among the fitness club users to develop a strategic management plan to prevent injury.

The population of this study consisted of all members of the Palladium club in Isfahan (6800 users), which 364 members among them voluntarily participated in this study. Data related to injuries were collected by an injury report form. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (number and percentage).

The results of the present study showed that overexertion/strenuous/unnatural resulted in 36.8% of the injuries, followed by the crushed by falling/dropped weights 21.5%, falling while participating in group classes 10.9%, bad landing or twist during exercise 10.4%. About 45.1% of the injuries occurred during exercise with weights, followed by 17.3 % in group classes (aerobics), 9.9% while using the treadmill. Regarding the type of injuries, knees injuries and pain in the knees and patellofemoral syndrome was most common (19.7%) followed by the pain of the calf area, including shin splint (18/6%), pain of the wrist area and sprain in the wrist, straining the wrist tendons (17.8%) had the most injuries. Between the users of fitness clubs lower extremities (43.5%) was the most common anatomical site that was injured and followed by the upper extremities (34.7%), the spine (15.3 %), and head and neck (6.5 %).

It can be concluded that the number of injuries in fitness club users is very high, so the information of this study has to be used to develop a systematic prevention program to maximize the performance and health of the users using effective management