SynthesisSports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)2020
The Association Between the Acute:Chronic Workload Ratio and Injury and its Application in Team Sports: A Systematic Review.
Synthesis in Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
73 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Physical fitness and training factors associated with injury risk in aerobic gymnastics: a systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- The effect of physical fatigue on the performance of soccer players: A systematic review.PloS one · 2022Pooled it
- The Association Between Poor Sleep and the Incidence of Sport and Physical Training-Related Injuries in Adult Athletic Populations: A Systematic Review.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2021Pooled it
- Is the Acute: Chronic Workload Ratio (ACWR) Associated with Risk of Time-Loss Injury in Professional Team Sports? A Systematic Review of Methodology, Variables and Injury Risk in Practical Situations.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2020Pooled it
- Comparison of Weekly Training Load and Acute: Chronic Workload Ratio Methods to Estimate Change in Training Load in Running.Journal of athletic training · 2024Trial
- Wearable Technologies and Artificial Intelligence in Sports Medicine: A Systematic Narrative Review of Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation.Health science reports · 2026Article
- The Relationship Between Games Missed for Rest or Load Management and Injury in the National Basketball Association, 2014-15 Through 2022-23.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Observational
- Article
- Acute effects of FIFA 11+, PEP, HarmoKnee, and dynamic warm-up protocols on phase-specific countermovement jump performance and neuromuscular activation in elite youth soccer players.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2026Article
- A new conceptual framework for managing hamstring injury risk in soccer - implementing a data-informed approach: a narrative review.Biology of sport · 2026Review
- Multi-sensor fusion outperforms single indicators for fatigue prediction in university soccer players: a machine learning approach.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
- Training Load, Mileage, and Perceived Exertion as a Predictive Model of Injury and Illness in Women's Soccer.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- An Explainable Machine Learning Approach to Explain the Effects of Training and Match Load on Ultra-Short-Term Heart Rate Variability in Semi-Professional Basketball Players.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- From load monitoring to training decisions: a practical approach using drop jump metrics in semi-professional soccer.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Article
- Secondary prevention of musculoskeletal sports injuries: a scoping review of early detection and early intervention strategies.The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association · 2025Article
- Analysis of Internal Training Load and Sports Injuries Incidence in Gymnasts of Different Exposure Levels.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Influence of Acute and Chronic Load on Perceived Wellbeing, Neuromuscular Performance, and Immune Function in Male Professional Football Players.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Advanced feature engineering in Acute:Chronic Workload Ratio (ACWR) calculation for injury forecasting in elite soccer.PloS one · 2025Article
- Physical, psychosocial and dual-career loads as risk factors for injuries and illnesses in elite handball players: a 45-week prospective cohort study.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2025Article
13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere has been a recent increase in research examining training load as a method of mitigating injury risk due to its known detrimental effects on player welfare and team performance. The acute:chronic workload ratio (ACWR) takes into account the current training load (acute) and the training load that an athlete has been prepared for (chronic). The ACWR can be calculated using; (1) the rolling average model (RA) and (2) the exponentially weighted moving average model (EWMA).
objectiveThe primary aim of this systematic review was to investigate the literature examining the association between the occurrence of injury and the ACWR and to investigate if sufficient evidence exists to determine the best method of application of the ACWR in team sports.
methodsStudies were identified through a comprehensive search of the following databases: EMBASE, Medline, SPORTDiscus, SCOPUS, AMED and CINAHL. Extensive data extraction was performed. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed according to the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for Cohort Studies.
resultsA total of 22 articles met the inclusion criteria. The assessment of article quality had an overall median NOS score of 8 (range 5-9). The findings of this review support the association between the ACWR and non-contact injuries and its use as a valuable tool for monitoring training load as part of a larger scale multifaceted monitoring system that includes other proven methods. There is support for both models, but the EWMA is the more suitable measure, in part due to its greater sensitivity. The most appropriate acute and chronic time periods, and training load variables, may be dependent on the specific sport and its structure.
conclusionsFor practitioners, it is the important to understand the intricacies of the ACWR before deciding the best method of calculation. Future research needs to focus on the more sensitive EWMA model, for both sexes, across a larger range of sports and time frames and also combinations with other injury risk factors.
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Identifiers
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.