OTTAWA, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- A knee injury as a teen can triple the risk of osteoarthritis by middle age, but warm-ups can help avoid such injuries, say Canadian researchers.
Hockey season is less than two months away, but it is now the time for parents and coaches to think long and hard about warm-ups to prevent the possible development of osteoarthritis, according to Dr. Cy Frank, scientific director of the Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in Ottawa.
"Knee injuries are among the most common form of hockey injuries," said Frank. "Knee injury prevention alone could reduce osteoarthritis -- the most common form of arthritis of the knee -- and its future disabling pain by at least 20 percent. We know that lower body injuries, including knee injuries, account for 31 percent of all hockey injuries and that sprains are the most common type of hockey injury to any part of the body."
Researchers will train coaches across Canada to use proper warm-up methods targeting quadriceps/hamstring flexibility, stretching, power and agility drills, and skill techniques to avoid injury and appropriate rehabilitation if injury occurs, according to Frank.
