Could it be that COVID-19 restrictions \u201cdetrained\u201d elite athletes, resulting in higher incidence of injury after the return to large-scale sport events? Brock Associate Professor of Kinesiology Nicole Chimera is working to find out.<\/p>\n
Detraining occurs when workouts, coaching and other training activities are reduced or stopped, typically due to illness or injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the pandemic, there was this holding pattern where people were in a lockdown and there was no training happening in athletes\u2019 typical training environments for quite an extended period of time,\u201d says Chimera, who was recently awarded a Canada Games Grant through the University to dive deeper into the subject.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith such detraining, we could potentially see greater incidence of muscle strains, musculoskeletal injuries, and tendon and ligament injuries, among others,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
One of eight researchers awarded funding under the third round of the VPR Canada Games Grants<\/a> program, Chimera will use her funding to investigate the impacts of detraining by comparing historical rates of injury and illness occurring during Canada Games held from 2009 to 2019 with injury and illness rates occurring during the Canada Games competitions occurring later this year.<\/p>\n