An analysis of self-reported upper and lower limb injuries in Polish obstacle course races participants

Obstacle course racing (OCR) is characterized by various distance, terrain, obstacles and weather conditions. We hypothesized that various specific factors could increase the probability of traumas, especially limb injuries.

An online questionnaire survey was conducted among OCR participants in Poland. The questionnaire consisted of 5 sets of questions: demographic parameters, participating in obstacle course races last year, characteristic of the trainings, participant-assessed race safety and injury characteristics.

We analyzed the data collected from 153 obstacle course races participants: 95 men (62.1%) and 58 women (37.9%), mean age 30.3±7.4 years. Forty-two respondents (27.4%) reported race-related extremity injury. In univariable analysis the risk of limb injuries increased with longer time per week devoted to training sessions with obstacles (P=0.025) and participating in higher number of obstacle course races last year (P=0.006). Furthermore, training in groups during preparation was associated with a higher risk of limb trauma (P=0.015). Moreover, people doing more running interval sessions per week (P=0.0343) and spending more time on interval training sessions per week - both run (P=0.0098) and other than run (P=0.0063) are more prone to suffer limb injuries in OCR.

The prevalence of limb injuries in OCR is elevated and it is desirable to be reduced by establishment and elimination above mentioned risk factors. Further researches are needed for deepening the knowledge of injuries in OCR.