Sports-injuries can be divided in ”acute” - accident type injuries – broken bones, torn ligaments and the likes - or ”overuse” injuries, when the tissue has been stressed ”too much, too hard and too often”. Both types happen to roller-skiers but the acute injuries belong to the ordinary medical care and are not dealt with here.
So ours is the problem of ”overuse”. This can be radically reduced by well thought out training-programs and good equipment such as good shoes for runners or StaffanStaven for roller-skiers. Overuse can be due to different types of loads. Static loads – leads to rapid exhaustion of a specific muscle. If too prolonged it leads to inflammatory changes, pain, stiffness and reduced capacity for any type of work. Static loads are very common in computer work and less so for the roller-skier.
But still, sometimes, some muscles in the neck, shoulders, forearms, hands, feet and calves do get static loads. Poor balance, poor technique and sometimes poor equipment can cause static overloads. Muscles are vulnerable to static loads. If the force required is greater then 6% of the muscles' maximum contraction force, then the biochemistry of the muscle is corrupted and lactic acid is accumulated and many other “pain inducing” substances increase in concentration. Dynamic loads – this is what muscles are made for and they handle this kind of load very well. But there can always be too much of a good thing. If you do a maximum effort one day your body will not be ready for an equally hard day's work the next day. You might get 65% out of your muscles the next day but if you wait another day before you train hard again you will achieve 90%. If you wait two days you can put out 95%, but for another 100% performance you can not train more often than every four days. Many are eager and willing and try training two or three times a day and if they know how to do that – it's probably OK but few do. You can train several times a day but you can't train the same muscles very hard that often.
You have to chose between force, speed, technique, mental ability, endurance and so on in order to improve and not to destroy. Keep a training diary - that is a very good piece of advice. Adverse influences – is something inbetween accident and overuse. It could be cold air that induces bronchitis, it could be vibrations making your legs numb. It could be too heavy tools or it could – as is sometimes the case while roller-skiing, be the repeated hard shocks when the poles hit the ground. If you have increased your training gradually and for a long time then, by using StaffanStaven, you can endure more training than previously.