QUICK SCIENCE
Study shows swim paddles cause most overuse injuries in triathletes
It’s inevitable – at some point on your tri journey you’ll spend time recovering from injury. But are there injury trends and, if so, how can they be avoided? It’s a question answered in a recent study by Dr Dominik Schorn and his team, who analysed the injury history of 193 amateur German triathletes over 12 months. Of the 193, 12 participants sustained an acute injury (a oneoff impact) while 36 experienced an overuse injury. Preventing crashing, the researchers noted, could come down to technique, albeit sometimes it’s simply unavoidable. When it came to the overuse group, the most common ailment revolved around the shoulder area with Schorn concluding that paddles were the root cause. “A possible reason for this is the expansion of the hand surface, leading to increased resistance during the catch and pull phase of the stroke,” Schorn said. This commonly puts too much strain on the shoulder, especially for those either new to swimming or returning from a pre-existing injury. The takeaway? Choose smaller paddles and build up slowly to larger versions, or simply don’t use paddles.