Author(s) :

Benny Peng.

Volume/Issue :

Abstract :

Wrestling, one of the oldest combat sports, has had a notable history of lumbar spine injuries among their athletes. High rates of reported lumbar spine injury in wrestlers by a variety of sports organizations have yet to elicit the response of any direct formal research regarding specific injury mechanics. Training habits, along with competition behavior, must be evaluated, as data shows that injuries occur much more commonly in wrestling practice compared to other sports’ practices. Muscle strains are typically the most common form of lumbar spine injury within wrestlers, and have been shown to induce lower back pain, inhibit movement, and evoke recurring injuries in the future. Previous research has rigorously analyzed general spine injuries along with lumbar spine injuries across all sports. There is a research gap around the biomechanical predictors of lumbar spine injury. No studies have focused specifically on the muscular risk factors that can lead to lumbar spine injury in wrestling. The purpose of this research is to uncover modifiable muscular biomarkers that can be shown to result in a higher chance of lumbar spine injury. It was hypothesized that muscular imbalance and instability will be the most identifiable risk factors associated with lumbar spine injury. This study analyzed a synthetic dataset of 1000 wrestlers’ biomechanical markers and parameters. T-Test revealed that Lumbar Back Pain had a statistically significant difference in score of Trunk Asymmetry than those reporting no Lumbar Back Pain (p < 0.0001). The same was true for spinal erector muscle imbalance scores (p < 0.0001). Future studies are encouraged to evaluate athlete condition and markers over an extended period.