Prevention of Lateral Epicondylalgia in Handgun Olympic Shooting Athletes

Effect of Exercise Combined With Stretching Program to Prevent Lateral Epicondylalgia in Handgun Olympic Shooting Athletes: a Randomized Controlled Trial

Lateral epicondylalgia is one of the most common pathologies suffered by Olympic gun shooting athletes. In Spain, there is hardly any research carried out in this sport, so there are no injury prevention protocols available. Preventing these injuries would be fundamental to improve the performance of athletes and to be able to continue adding successes to national honors.

It has also been evidenced that if exercise is combined with stretching, the benefits of physical therapy are increased. High-quality studies have stated that it is not necessary for this exercise protocol combined with stretching to be very prolonged over time, as they affirm that significant improvements can be achieved with only four weeks of exercise.

This study aimed to test the hypothesis that Olympic handgun shooting athletes who perform a four-week multimodal exercise program combined with stretching have a lower risk of suffering from lateral epicondylalgia than athletes who do not perform this program, determining its effectiveness for pain prevention.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adults aged >35 years
• Present a risk of suffering from lateral epicondylalgia
• Be in possession of a federation Olympic shooting license
• Practice Olympic shooting with handgun and carry out at least one Olympic shooting training session a week or have participated in the last three months in an official competition

Exclusion Criteria:

• Subjects who had serious uncontrolled illnesses
• Who had undergone surgery as a treatment for lateral epicondylalgia
• Who had received treatment for lateral epicondylalgia in the last month or injections of corticosteroids or steroids for this pathology in the last 6 months
• Who had suffered a serious upper limb injury in the last year or present a risk of suffering epicondylalgia due to a cause other than Olympic shooting