Carbohydrate strategies for injury prevention.
Prevention of injury involves identifying risk factors that would predispose one to injury and developing strategies to attenuate or eliminate their presence. Because muscle glycogen depletion is associated with fatigue and injury, it should be treated as a possible risk factor. Muscle glycogen stores are derived almost entirely from carbohydrate intake. Because there is a limited capacity to store muscle glycogen, and because muscle glycogen is the predominant fuel in exercise of moderate to severe intensity, the nutritional focus should be on carbohydrate consumption. Easy-to-follow nutritional strategies should be employed that will maximize muscle glycogen stores and delay the onset of fatigue. Individuals involved in activities lasting less than 60 minutes need to consume an adequate amount of carbohydrate daily and a pre-event meal before the start of the activity. However, individuals participating in activities longer than 60 minutes or participating in activities requiring repeated bouts of high intensity exercise need to: 1) consume an adequate amount of carbohydrate daily, 2) practice carbohydrate loading, 3) consume the pre-event meal, and 4) ingest carbohydrates immediately before, during, and after the activity.
Gretchen Schlabach is Program Director of Athletic Training/Sports Medicine at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115.
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