Injuries in Masters Rowers – Part 1

Introduction: 

This is the first comprehensive study completed that looks across the entire spectrum of masters rowers detailing injury type, injury site, and frequency. The study was conducted with one thousand masters rowers from the 2007 FISA World Masters Regatta in Zagreb, Croatia on September 2-9, 2007. In my review, you will learn the most prominent injuries and mechanisms most relevant to the masters rower. I will provide specific recommendations for training to mitigate these injury mechanisms. I found this research while preparing my April 2020 USRowing webinar on the importance of strength and conditioning training for masters rowers, available in the media section of this issue. It’s important that we understand each population of rowers we’re coaching, so that our practice and training methods are tailored to the individual and not just guesswork based on other populations. Masters athletes are an under-studied group, and research like this offers valuable takeaways for masters rowers and coaches.

Research Question: What is the frequency and location of injuries in masters rowers and how does this compare to other rowing age groups?

Subjects: 743 out of 1000 invited masters rowers participated in this study. 

For the purposes of this study the masters rowers’ responses were combined into three large age groups. The age categories in this study differ from racing categories.

They were as follows:

• AB Group (27-42 years of age) | 208 Total participants
• CDE Group (43-59 years of age) | 368 Total participants
• F+ Group (60+ years of age) | 167 Total participants

The 743 study participants represent a 74.3% participation rate of total masters rowers invited and 25.5% of the total number of competitors from the World Masters Regatta. The participants were from a total of 36 countries and included 475 men and 268 women across all age groups. The average age was 51 and 46 for men and women, respectively.

Procedure: 

The study was broken into two parts: questionnaire and interview. The four page questionnaire focused on personal information, training for that year and any injuries that took place. Only after the questionnaire was completed did participants proceed to the interview.  The researchers refer to previous studies to describe the methods used for the questionnaire and interview process (1,2). Upon review of these studies the questionnaire consisted of three parts: (1) personal and general rowing information such as age, height, weight, and number of years rowing (2) rowing information concerning the 2007 season and (3) rowing injuries acquired in that season. The questionnaire was analyzed and results were segmented according to anatomic location, acute or chronic injury and if there was a loss of training time. 

A loss of training time was designated into the following categories:

1. Incidental injury – No absence from training or competition.
2. Minor injury – One week absence or less.
3. Moderate injury – An absence greater than one week but less than a month.
4. Major injury –  Absence greater than a month from training and/or competition. 

The interviews provided an opportunity to learn greater detail about the athlete and any subsequent injuries in the twelve months prior to the regatta.

Results: 

The majority of the injuries were chronic in nature meaning they are occurring again and again. Men and women, in any age group,  did not have a significant difference in injury rate or frequency.

Out of the 743 masters rowers who participated in this study, 248 sustained injuries – 33.4% in total. Furthermore, what is even more revealing is that some experienced multiple injuries. The study found that 160 rowers experienced one injury, 66 experienced two injuries, 21  experienced three injuries and a single rower experienced four injuries. This speaks to the continual recurrence of the injuries during the training season and can tell us a lot about the training program.

The low back was the injury site most common for both acute and chronic injuries. Low back injuries represent 32.6% of all injuries, again nearly one third. The second most common injury site was the knee at 14.2% of  all injuries. The shoulder/upper arm and elbow were tied for third with 10.6% of all injuries. The fourth most common injury site was a compilation of pelvis/groin/buttock/hip/thigh at 10.3%. The fifth most common injury site was the lower arm/wrist at 5.3%

Incidental injuries did not lead to a loss in training time. The researchers did start to see a migration in more upper body injuries as the athletes got older, especially in the F+ age group. In fact, the F+ age group had more upper body injuries than the AB and CDE age groups.

One eye opening statistic was that 43.7% of acute injuries occurred during cross training. Nine injuries took place in the gym and 59 took place during other cross training activities such as running, cycling, nordic skiing, alpine skiing, and soccer. A significant amount of the injuries masters rowers experienced occurred when they engaged in multiple cross training sports/activities! 

One final point from the results that kept bubbling up across all of the masters age groups was that rowers with elite level experience had fewer acute injuries than their age level counterparts. 

Limitations: 

There are two key limitations to this study. The first is there are injured masters rowers unaccounted for. A limitation of the retrospective survey system is that masters rowers who were too injured to participate in the regatta are excluded from the study population. The injury numbers may be underreported due to the selection bias. 

The second major limitation of this study is that it is retrospective. In a retrospective study, researchers collect information after an event or time frame. In a prospective study, researchers collect data as the event is ongoing. Retrospective studies have limitations of the memory and accurate recording practices of the study participants. Additionally, the researchers do not note the exact dates of study. 

They state that the regatta took place in 2007, but do not identify when they collected the survey and interview data. It would be helpful to know if this data was collected 1-2 years after the athletes participation at this event or if they were not contacted until 2017, a year before publication date. If the participants of this study were asked to go back and complete a survey for an athletic event that took place a decade earlier we would be relying on some very detailed training journals, medical records and memory. As of the time of this publication I did contact lead author Tomislav Smoljanovic to clarify when the survey was given. 

All words by Science of Rowing

[1] Smoljanovic, T., Bohacek, I., Hannafin, J. A., Terborg, O., Hren, D., Pecina, M., & Bojanic, I. (2015). Acute and chronic injuries among senior international rowers: a cross-sectional study. International Orthopaedics, 39(8), 1623-1630. 
[2] Smoljanovic, T., Bojanic, I., Hannafin, J. A., Hren, D., Delimar, D., & Pecina, M. (2009). Traumatic and overuse injuries among international elite junior rowers. American Journal of Sports Medicine, 37(6), 1193-1199.

This is the first instalment of the Science of Rowing summary of investigations into Injuries in Masters Rowers. If you are interested in reading more from Science of Rowing then use the code “JRN20” for a 20% recurring discount on monthly and annual membership. https://scienceofrowing.com/memberships/

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