Purpose: To establish the relationship between the acute:chronic workload ratio and lower-extremity overuse injuries in professional basketball players over the course of a competitive season. Methods: The acute:chronic workload ratio was determined by calculating the sum of the current week`s session rating of perceived exertion of training load (acute load) and dividing it by the average weekly training load over the previous 4 wk (chronic load). All injuries were recorded weekly using a self-report injury questionnaire (Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Injury Questionnaire20). Workload ratios were modeled against injury data using a logistic-regression model with unique intercepts for each player. Results: Substantially fewer team members were injured after workload ratios of 1 to 1.49 (36%) than with very low (=0.5; 54%), low (0.5-0.99; 51%), or high (=1.5; 59%) workload ratios. The regression model provided unique workload-injury trends for each player, but all mean differences in likelihood of being injured between workload ratios were unclear. Conclusions: Maintaining workload ratios of 1 to 1.5 may be optimal for athlete preparation in professional basketball. An individualized approach to modeling and monitoring the training load-injury relationship, along with a symptom-based injury-surveillance method, should help coaches and performance staff with individualized training-load planning and prescription and with developing athlete-specific recovery and rehabilitation strategies.
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