The total injury rate in junior competitions is lower compared with elite adult athletes and higher compared with younger elite athletes. Time-loss injuries are rare. The implementation of the new competition categories in U21 karate has been associated with a significant reduction in injury rate.

No abstract

The physical fitness of women with fibromyalgia, as determined by the Six-Minute Walk Test and the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, has no direct relation with quality of life as the patients perceive it.

The objective of this study was to assess the long- and short-term effects of a multimodal program, specifically designed to be carried out by fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) patients themselves, after a 12-week period of learning. Thirty female FMS patients volunteered for the study. The learning phase consisted on twelve weekly sessions of an hour, combining muscular resistance and flexibility exercises with techniques of breathing and relaxing, plus a half-hour incentive physiotherapy session. Flexibility, illness impact and pain were assessed at the beginning of the study, at the end of the learning phase and six months afterwards (follow-up). Twenty-one patients completed the programme. At the end of the learning phase, the improvement in the patients' physical condition was significant, as was the impact of the illness. Thirty-three percent of the patients continued training during the follow-up period and kept up the improvements achieved. The self-controlled multimodal programme was efficient in improving flexibility and reducing the impact of the illness in women fibromyalgia patients. However, adherence was poor when patients had to exercise on their own.

The risk of concussions in top-level karate competition is low, with a tendency for an increased risk for men and for competition without weight limits, but not statistically significant with respect to women or individual competition.