Is it Possible to Prevent Injuries by Controlling the Training Load? a Systematic Review ‎

Training of athletes can be quantified by training load. In recent years, the concept of training load has received more attention, and this is important because the necessity of monitoring the athlete in line with the required adaptations of the desired sport's needs is of great importance. Therefore, studies considering the relationship between training load and the risk of injury and overtraining are more emphasized. The purpose of the present study is to answer the question of whether it is possible to prevent injuries by controlling the exercise load?

Articles were searched in the PubMed Medline and Science direct and Google scholar  database and keywords injury, exercise load, and combination of words Injury& Prediction and  Load & Injury 2016 and 2022. Only experimental and semi-experimental studies were reviewed.

A total of 25 articles were selected among 507 studies based on the inclusion criteria. Most of the reviewed studies introduced the ACWR criterion as an important criterion in measuring training load and reported its relationship as an injury risk factor. These studies investigated the relationship between training and competition load and athletes' injuries. The results of the reviewed studies showed that the ACWR criterion is an important criterion in measuring the training load and this criterion is introduced as an injury risk factor.

Results of the present study showed training load is related to the possibility of injury in athletes, but there is still a debate in scientific circles about the exact way of this relationship. Additionally, the best way to measure load training is the measurement of internal and external load together. Results also illustrated that the pattern of impact of training load on the probability of injury in athletes in individual and team sports is different.  In order to consider the principle of individual differences in the probability of injury, it is necessary to use criteria that can report the internal load of each athlete individually.