One hundred thirty-eight female collegiate athletes, participating in eight weightbearing varsity sports, were administered preseason strength and flexibility tests and followed for injuries during their sports seasons. Strength was measured as the maximal isokinetic torque of the right and left knee flexors and knee extensors at 30 and 180 deg/sec. Flexibility was measured as the active range of motion of several lower body joints. An athletic trainer evaluated and recorded injuries occurring to the athletes in practice or competition. Forty percent of the women suffered one or more injuries. Athletes experienced more lower extremity injuries if they had: 1) a right knee flexor 15% stronger than the left knee flexor at 180 deg/sec; 2) a right hip extensor 15% more flexible than the left hip extensor; 3) a knee flexor/knee extensor ratio of less than 0.75 at 180 deg/sec. There was a trend for higher injury rates to be associated with knee flexor or hip extensor imbalances of 15% or more on either side of the body. These data demonstrate that specific strength and flexibility imbalances are associated with lower extremity injuries in female collegiate athletes.

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College students are increasingly reporting higher stress, which can negatively influence their personal and intellectual development. Greater academic challenges and new social experiences in college may be accompanied by stressors like mental health issues, family concerns, or financial pressures. To help students manage stress, institutions typically provide resources through health services, student life or student affairs, recreation departments, or other entities that operates primarily outside the academic program. Recently, some institutions have integrated wellness education into the academic curriculum, leveraging the power of the classroom to deliver important lessons about accessible, evidence-based wellness strategies. Here we investigate if a first-year interdisciplinary writing class designed to help students learn about physical and mental wellbeing actually improved students’ awareness of their wellbeing and their confidence as first year learners. We share details of the course design, evidence of student learning, and advice for incorporating wellness content throughout the curriculum.

140 college women participating in one of three types of physical education classes (wellness, fitness, sport skills) responded to questions about body image, body-self relations, and lifestyle behaviors at the onset and conclusion of a 6-wk. program. Pre-post changes for the wellness classes involved the largest number of domains and included increased satisfaction with body and physical appearance, more positive assessment of physical fitness and health, higher orientation toward fitness and health, and reports of positive changes in lifestyle behaviors. Pre-post changes for the fitness classes were mainly in the fitness domain, including a more positive assessment of fitness, a higher orientation toward fitness, and an increase in fitness-oriented activities; increased satisfaction with body and physical appearance was also reported. Participation in sport-skills classes produced only one pre-post change, an increase in fitness-oriented activities. Possible reasons for the success of the wellness classes are discussed. Results suggest that participation in wellness classes provides students with a positive, proactive, empowered attitude toward their own health and well-being.

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