Overuse injuries: injuries that result from a mechanism of repetitive and cumulative microtrauma, without a specific onset incident.Rapid changes in physical growth can make children vulnerable to overuse injuries, and these types of injuries are increasing among youth populations. Overuse injuries can usually be classified into 4 types/stages, these include:
- Pain in the affected area during activity (which does not affect performance)
- Pain in the affected area during activity (which does restrict performance)
- Pain in the affected area after activity
- Chronic pain in the affected area, even after resting
Predictive Indicators of Overuse Injuries in Adolescent Endurance Athletes, runners seem to account for the majority of injuries (up to 80 percent) with the majority of these injuries (more than two-thirds), occurring in the lower extremity and being of an overuse nature.
Although incidence rates in senior athletics have been reported as 3.9 injuries/1000 hours of practice, specific injury incidence in youth track and field varies among disciplines; whereas an overall incidence of 0.89 injuries/1000 hours has been reported for high school track and field athletes.
In addition, long-distance runners have shown a 19 times higher incidence (17 injuries/1000 hours) than other disciplines.