Injuries in Judo Athletes With Disabilities: Prevalence, Magnitude, and Sport-Related Mechanisms.

CONTEXT: The participation of judo athletes with disabilities in competitions has increased over the years as well as the burden of sports-related injuries and illnesses in this population. However, there is limited knowledge about sports-related injuries in judo athletes with different disabilities. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence of injuries in judo athletes with disabilities, considering the different impairment groups, magnitude of injury (ie, mechanism, nature, and severity of injury), and specific body parts. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study (level of evidence, 3). SETTING: Brazilian Judo athletes with disabilities. PATIENTS: Fifty-one judo athletes with disabilities (15 men and 36 women) participated in this study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Data were obtained from an adapted injury report form. The prevalence of injuries was assessed, considering type of impairment, body parts, mechanisms, and severity as well as differences between male and female athletes, with the significance level set at P < .05. RESULTS: The results demonstrated a high prevalence of injuries in female athletes with visual impairment (n = 11, 73.3%) and male athletes with amputations (n = 14, 38.8%). A high prevalence was found in the national group, especially for male athletes (n = 29, 80.5%). Among athletes who had injuries, 69.4% (n = 12) of male and 80.0% (n = 25) of female athletes' injuries occurred due to direct contact with other athletes, and 72.2% (n = 26) of male and 86.6% (n = 13) of female athletes' injuries were in the training environment. The magnitude of injuries ranged from moderate to severe for male and female athletes. The knee (n = 25, 49.0%) and shoulder (n = 12, 23.5%) were the body parts most affected by injuries in both male and female athletes. CONCLUSION: A large percentage of judo athletes with disabilities reported experiencing an injury during the previous 2 years; percentages were greater in athletes with visual and physical impairment. Moreover, most injuries occurred in the knee or shoulder, during training, and in direct contact with other athletes and were of severe magnitude.

Effect of cadence on volume and myoelectric activity during agonist-antagonist paired sets (supersets) in the lower body.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of cadence on volume load (VLoad) and muscle activity during agonist -antagonist paired sets (APS) in the lower body. Twelve trained men (24.0 ± 3.3 years; 78.3 ± 9.7 kg; 1.77 ± 0.58 m) volunteered to participate in this study. After the 10 maximum repetition test for leg extension and seated leg curl, participants performed three experimental protocols: first protocol (traditional)-three sets of only leg extension (60 bpm); second protocol (fast cadence)-three sets of leg extension, with each set preceded by one set on the seated leg curl with fast cadence (90 bpm); third protocol (slow cadence)-similar to the second, but seated leg curl with slow cadence (40 bpm). The total number of repetitions, VLoad and the electromyography activity for the vastus lateralis, vastus medialis and rectus femoris muscles were recorded. The VLoad was higher during APS than the traditional method, but the cadence (fast or slow) of antagonist exercise did not influence VLoad. Muscle activity of vastus lateralis was higher during traditional protocol; on the other hand, rectus femoris showed higher activity on APS fast cadence protocol, indicating that APS has a different influence on quadriceps components.