Injuries and Overuse Syndromes in Competitive and Elite Bodybuilding

Abstract

Competitive bodybuilding is a weightlifting sport similar to powerlifting, strongman competition and Olympic weightlifting, which aims to increase muscle mass, symmetry, and body definition. Although data regarding rates of injury, overuse syndromes and pain during routine training is available for these other disciplines, it is rare for competitive bodybuilding. The aim of this study was to investigate rates of injury, pain during workouts and/or overuse syndromes, as well as the influence of particular intrinsic and external factors. Data was collected using questionnaires from 71 competitive and elite bodybuilders. The information included training routines and prior injuries. Participants were recruited from bodybuilding clubs in Germany. 45.1% of athletes reported symptoms while training. The overall injury rate was computed to be 0.12 injuries per bodybuilder per year (0.24 injuries per 1 000 h of bodybuilding). Athletes over 40 exhibited higher rates of injury (p=0.029). Other investigated parameters showed no effects. Most injuries occurred in the shoulder, elbow, lumbar spine and knee regions. A large proportion of bodybuilders complained of pain not resulting in interruptions of training/competition. The injury rate is low compared to other weightlifting disciplines such as powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting or strongman competition. In comparison to team or contact sports the injury rate is minimal.

The Epidemiology of Injuries Across the Weight-Training Sports

“…Kulund et al [35] found that the clean and jerk, squat and the snatch were the three most commonly cited injurycausing exercises for weightlifters (21 -46%). In contrast, the squat (11 -24%), bench press (6 -16%) and shoulder press (9 -14%) were the most common injury-causing exercises for bodybuilders [31,38] and strongman athletes [26]. For CrossFit athletes, powerlifting, gymnastics and Olympic lifting exercises (23, 20 and 17%, respectively) were most commonly cited as causing injury [34].…”

“…Five of the 20 studies had a score ≥75% and were considered to have a low ROB [19]. The definition of injury was clearly described in 14 studies [13,20,22,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34], with these definitions typically requiring an injury to involve physical damage to the athlete that caused the athlete to modify or cancel at least one training session. A summary of the definitions provided in these papers is provided in Table 2.…”

“…One study used different modes of data collection [20] (e-mail, telephone, interview, etc.). A diagnosis of all injuries was conducted by health professionals in five studies [22,24,[27][28][29] and partially in another five studies [13,20,21,26,31]. Changes in risk exposure (e.g.…”

“…the proportion of athletes who had suffered an injury [22,23,28,30,31,34], with this varying from 16 -90%. Drawing comparisons between these studies is difficult as the time frame of data collection differed.…”

“…Drawing comparisons between these studies is difficult as the time frame of data collection differed. At one extreme, Junge et al [28] and Engebretzen et al [22] collected data during Olympic competitions (16 and 17 days, respectively), whereas other studies [30,31] collected data over the athletes' entire career. In contrast, Wang et al [23] provided no specific timeframe for the duration of the data collection.…”