Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32991699›Full record

ArticleJournal of athletic training2020

Training Load and Its Role in Injury Prevention, Part 2: Conceptual and Methodologic Pitfalls.

Franco M Impellizzeri, Alan McCall, Patrick Ward, Luke Bornn, Aaron J Coutts

Erratum issuedAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of athletic training, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 29 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
29citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

29 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
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  5. Predicting self-reported injury status among runners training for the New York City Marathon.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitation · 2026
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Franco M ImpellizzeriFaculty of Health, Human Performance Research Centre and School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation, University of Technology Sydney, Australia.
Alan McCallArsenal Football Club, London, United Kingdom.
Patrick WardSeattle Seahawks, WA.
Luke BornnSacramento Kings, CA.
Aaron J CouttsFaculty of Health, Human Performance Research Centre and School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation, University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In part 2 of this clinical commentary, we highlight the conceptual and methodologic pitfalls evident in current training-load-injury research. These limitations make these studies unsuitable for determining how to use new metrics such as acute workload, chronic workload, and their ratio for reducing injury risk. The main overarching concerns are the lack of a conceptual framework and reference models that do not allow for appropriate interpretation of the results to define a causal structure. The lack of any conceptual framework also gives investigators too many degrees of freedom, which can dramatically increase the risk of false discoveries and confirmation bias by forcing the interpretation of results toward common beliefs and accepted training principles. Specifically, we underline methodologic concerns relating to (1) measure of exposures, (2) pitfalls of using ratios, (3) training-load measures, (4) time windows, (5) discretization and reference category, (6) injury definitions, (7) unclear analyses, (8) sample size and generalizability, (9) missing data, and (10) standards and quality of reporting. Given the pitfalls of previous studies, we need to return to our practices before this research influx began, when practitioners relied on traditional training principles (eg, overload progression) and adjusted training loads based on athletes' responses. Training-load measures cannot tell us whether the variations are increasing or decreasing the injury risk; we recommend that practitioners still rely on their expert knowledge and experience.

Indexed as

Athletic InjuriesCumulative Trauma DisordersPhysical Conditioning, HumanExerciseHumansPhysical ExertionResearch DesignRisk AssessmentSports MedicineWorkloadacute workloadchronic workloadepidemiologyratioresearch methods

Identifiers

PMID32991699
PMCPMC7534938

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.