Long Jump: Biochemical Analysis, Training, And Injury Prevention

Biochemical Analysis of Long Jump

Long jump is a track and field event, which combines strength, agility and propelling power of an athlete where the athlete jumps horizontally before jumping horizintally. The athletes participating in this event requires to have minimum height like 5 feet minimum, weight like 65 kgs and other body parameters. The athletes require undergoing rigorous training when they are weeks away from tournaments they are participating in. The paper is set against a backdrop of long jump competition where a jumper is preparing for an upcoming summer competition. The case study also mentions that he has already undergone basic speed and plyometric training consisting of workouts like plyo pushups and box jumps (uksport.gov.uk, 2018). The trainers would analyse the needs of the jumper and identify the risks he goes through professionally. Then they would form a fitness assessment of the athlete and go on to plan session to further train him. The training session would concentrate on each part like biceps. The trainer would then go on to break each session into a number of workouts. The paper would end with a justification for opting for the training schedule. The paper also sheds light on intricate training requirements of the athlete like stretchings, rests and medication. It also includes pictures showing various workouts of athletes.

The biochemical analysis of long jump divides the entire action into four phases, which involve several biochemical reactions.  The biochemical reactions consist of reaction of oxygen with the glucose in the muscles, which results in the release of energy the athlete requires to jump. The kidneys release adrenaline or epinephrine, which raises the heart rate and tension level in the jumper. The hormone also stimulates the sweat glands, which causes the athlete to sweat to maintain his body temperature and prevent him from getting exhausted. The lungs take in more oxygen to ensure continuous supply of energy to the muscles, thus incraesing respiration (uksport.gov.uk, 2018). The four phases are as follows:

Phase 1	Movement	Joint and agonist Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper
Approach run	It enforces maximum acceleration for take-off and enables the runner to use just enough speed required for a take-off.	The flexion and extension of all joints used. During hip extension: Gluteus maximus, semitendinosus, semimembranosus, long head of biceps femoris and adductor magnus. Knee extension: Rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius and vastus medialis. Ankle plantarflexion: gastrocnemius and soleus (calf muscles which comes into use during takeoff) Shoulder abduction and flexing: Deltoid, supraspinatus and pectoralis major.
Second last stride	To lower the gravitational centre and accumulate strength before take-off	Joints involved: hand and leg joints
Last stride	The body prepares for take-off	Agonist involved-torso Joints involved: Balls of feet, hip joint

Phase 2	Movement	Joint and agonist
Take off	To create impulse using centre of gravity and maintaining balance of body postire	Knee joint, metarsal joints, navicular joint (ankle) Hip hoints: head of femur, Articulatio coxae Agonists: quadriceps, hip extension muscles and Ankle plantarflexion described above.

Phase 3	Movement	Joint and agonist
Hitch Kick (Action in air)	Controlling the body and holding it from rotating forward	Cyclical motions of limbs

Phase 4	Movement	Joint and agonist
Landing	The muscles should move to prevent body from falling back, absorb shock and avoid injuries	Quadriceps flexes to make the body land while the hand muscles swing forward to support body on the ground. The patela joint bends and pelvic joints move forward.

Jumping requires two types of muscle fibres namely, long and short muscles. The benefit of the long msucles is that they perform the actions while the short muscles support them. The follwing are the main muscles used during long jump:

Body part	Muscle	Beneficial actions to jumping
Hip	Gluteus maximus, gluteus minimus (gluteal muscles), Biceps femoris, semi-membranosus and semi tendinosus (hamstrings)	Extension and hyperextension during movement
Knee	Rectus femoris, vastus medialis, vastus lateralis and vastus intermedialis (Quadriceps)	Extension duirng phase 1 and flexion during phase 4.
Ankle	Ankle plantarflexion: gastrocnemius and soleus (calf muscles which comes into use during takeoff) tibialis anterior	Flexing while phase 1 and tibialis anterior helps in landing

Common injuries	Causes
Jumper’s knee or patellar tendinitis	Injury of the knee cap while takeoff or landing
Runner’s knee	Knee trauma
Sprain in any of the agonists	Stretch or tear in ligament due to fall.

Injury related to long jump can be prevenented by taking right postures and precautions while performing in the phases mentioned above. The injuries can be treated with rest, ice, compression and elevation. Immediate medical attention would be required for severe injuries like fracrtures. The athlete must intake proper food to make nutrients available to muscles for faster repair (Jayanthi et al., 2015).

Muscles Used in Long Jumping

The third need of an athlete is apex index, which results in appropriate movements. The athlete is required to quality certain eligibility criteria to participate in the event.  The athlete needs to have measurements of limbs, chest, biceps, triceps, neck to shoulder length and various other body index measurements to qualify the hit. Successful fulfilment of the apex indices would allow the athlete to move, jump or sprint in appropriate fashion. Fulfilling these need analyses would attribute the athlete with stealth, speed and high performance parameters for him to win in the events (McSwiney et al., 2018). The following table would examplify the entire activity of a jumper:

The jumper needs to have high muscular strength of hip and legs to propel him through the air while jumping. Hence, the training needs of the jumper should incorporate workouts, which increase the strength of his hip and legs. Core muscular strength is very important for increasing the strength of hip and legs. The athlete should also have strong abdominal muscles and back muscles, which would absorb the shock due to sudden bursts and falls. Thus, the need analysis of the athlete here is paying emphasis on the increasing his muscular strength (Mabe & Butler, 2016).

The body composition of an athlete is of utmost importance for him to achieve muscular strength and hence is the second need analysis. The athlete should have adequate body mass index and weight for him to have superb muscular strength. The need of his body is low fat and lean mass for him to reduce the friction with the surrounding air while jumping. Adequate body composition parameters are of utmost importance to him to be qualified for the tournament (Nana et al., 2015).

The most significant risks to which athletes participating in different sports are exposed to are the risks owing to physical stress and injuries. Physical stress among athletes due to exertion and extreme environmental conditions like harsh weather sometimes hampers their performances (Jayanthi et al., 2015). The extreme wear and tear in muscles during participating in events causes injuries, which poses risks to the health and career athletes.

The athletes often resort to extreme dieting and drugs to improve their performances. These measures pose long-term risks to the health and performance of the athletes. These drug consumptions pose threat to the health and mind of the athletes often leading to collapses or even sudden death (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2018)

Common Injuries and Causes in Long Jump

The following table would show a list of fitness tests which the athlete would go through along with the time of the assessments:

Tests	Time	Rationale	References
40 yard sprint: The athlete would be required to sprint with a football	4.6 seconds	This would enhance the core strength of the athlete. It would also test his stamina to perform under pressure.	Jayanthi et al., 2015
60 yard shuttle assessment	1 hour	Sprint for 15 yards and return to starting point. Then again, sprint for 10 yards and sprint back to initial position. Finally sprint back 5 yards and sprint back.	Nana et al., 2015
1 mile run	1 day	Strengthening the core stamina and muscular strength of athletes.	ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2018
Vertical jump test: The athlete would jump and reach the highest point possible.	1 day	This would boost the jumping capability of the athlete.	Jayanthi et al., 2015
Broad jump test: The athlete would put his toes over an open space and jump forward to the maximum possible extent	I day	This would improve the jumping skills of the athlete.	uksport.gov.uk, 2018
Kettle bell clean and press workout test.	1 day	It would strengthen his hip and shoulder. Increase in propelling him through air while jumping.	ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2018
Strength and conditioning workout text: Composed of 25 pushups, 25 suspension trainer body rows, 25 situps, 25 deadlifts and 50 stepups.	1 day	Total stamina building	Jayanthi et al., 2015

The following table would provide a weekly overview of the micro-cycle training the athlete would go through to prepare for the 1^st competition:

Day	Work outs	Duration
1	Chest workout	2 hours
2	Biceps an triceps	2 hours
3	Sprint and swimming	2 hours
4	Shoulders and back	2 hours
5	Legs	2 hours
6	Sprints and stretching	2 hours
7	Rest

The two sessions:

Session 1: Bicep training

SL No	Exercises:	Repetitions (numbers)	Load	Recovery periods
1	Warm-ups	1	10 each	No required
2	Close grip chin ups	10*4 sets	As per capability	5 mins
3	Thick grip hammer curl	10*4 sets	5 kgs	5 mins
4	Thick grip barbell curl	10*4 sets	10 kgs	5 mins
5	Alternate dumbbell curl	10*4 sets	10 kgs	5 mins
6	Cool downs

Session 2: Legs training:

SL No	Exercises:	Repetitions (numbers)	Load	Recovery periods
1	Warm-ups	1	10 each	No required
2	Free squat	200	0	5 mins
3	Weight squats	20*4 sets	20 kgs, 25kgs and 30 kgs	5 mins
4	Dumbbell lunges	20*3sets	25 kgs	5 mins
5	Treadmills			10 mins
6	Cool down

 

The fitness programme designed fits very well with the needs of the athlete as far as the modes of exercise, sets, repetitions and rest prescribed are concerned. This is because the total workout plan is designed to boost the stamina, core strength and speed of the athlete. The session consists of both free hand exercises and weight training, which go on to provide the athlete with the apex index as per the need assessment analysis. The sessions are divided into exercise regimes targeting specific body parts like biceps and legs. This ensures that the athlete goes under training of all the parts to achieve all-round development to quality the body measurement tests. The athlete would be training each body part, once a week, which would allow him sufficient rest to recover from injuries. The trainers would incorporate 5 minutes of cool down after each work out sessions. This would ensure proper relaxing muscles after each set and prevent cramp and burnout. The athlete should be provided with facilities like food, supplements, medical care and relaxation facilities as parts of the training session. This discussion shows that the athlete should undergo the training session prescribed above when he is 6 weeks away from the competition (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2018).

The trainers besides incorporating sessions must provide the athlete with counselling and grooming. These would ensure that the athlete is able to handle stress stemming from performances and stays away from adopting unethical means. These two measures would make the training sessions laid down above more effective (Jayanthi et al., 2015).

Conclusion:

One can conclude from the discussion that the athlete must undergo rigorous training before participating in the long jump event. He should concentrate on increasing his jumping capabilities, speed, stamina, strength and body parameters. He should take adequate measures to avoid risks and abstain from resorting to illegal methods like doping. The trainers should design the training sessions keeping his needs in mind. They should ensure that the athlete undergoes training of each body part and gets enough rest to recover. They should also provide the athlete with medical attention whenever required. This should ensure that he gets proper nourishment and supplements to improve his strength and stamina. They should also lay stress on stress management and ethical training of the athlete.

Reference:

Fernandez-Fernandez, J., Ulbricht, A., & Ferrauti, A. (2014). Fitness testing of tennis players: How valuable is it?. Br J Sports Med, 48(Suppl 1), i22-i31. 

Jayanthi, N. A., LaBella, C. R., Fischer, D., Pasulka, J., & Dugas, L. R. (2015). Sports-specialized intensive training and the risk of injury in young athletes: a clinical case-control study. The American journal of sports medicine, 43(4), 794-801.

Jones, B. L., Till, K., & Manley, A. (2015). Advancing the profiling of athletes: Incorporating coach-athlete collaboration when interpreting fitness testing data. 

Mabe, J., & Butler, S. L. (2016). Analysis of Contemporary Anaerobic Sport Specific Training Techniques for Rock Climbing. Sport Journal.

McSwiney, F. T., Wardrop, B., Hyde, P. N., Lafountain, R. A., Volek, J. S., & Doyle, L. (2018). Keto-adaptation enhances exercise performance and body composition responses to training in endurance athletes. Metabolism, 81, 25-34.

Nana, A., Slater, G. J., Stewart, A. D., & Burke, L. M. (2015). Methodology review: using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) for the assessment of body composition in athletes and active people. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 25(2), 198-215.

Reardon, C., & Creado, S. (2018). Drug abuse in athletes. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 12 March 2018, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4140700/

Uksport.gov.uk. (2018). UK Sport | UK Sport. [online] Available at: https://www.uksport.gov.uk/ [Accessed 13 Mar. 2018].