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Objective: To identify the prevalence of injuries in male adults' athletes of the Brazilian team of taekwondo. Methods: Eleven athletes aged of 24±4.5 years answered two semi-structured questionnaires and objective questions for investigation of the following aspects: age; time practicing; taekwondo's graduation; anatomical region injured during training and/or competitions; injury mechanisms during competitions and training; periodization; duration and frequency of training and competitions in the last year; and if there was interruption of taekwondo practice due to injuries. Results: The contusion was the most frequent injury, and the lower limbs were most affected, 27% reported discontinuation of training and/or competition greater than or equal to 1 day due to injuries. The mean frequency of competitions; training days per week and training months per year were: 6±3 times/year; 5±1 days/week and 10±3 months/year. Conclusion: The most prevalent injury of athletes from the Brazilian team of taekwondo was the contusion in the thigh and forearm during competitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of stretching and therapeutic ultrasound (TUS) on desmin and laminin contents of rat muscle after contusion. Male Wistar rats (n = 35, 8–9 weeks of age, 271 ± 14g body weight) were divided into five groups: Control group (CG) (n= 03); Injured group (IG) (n= 8); Injured + ultrasound group (IUSG) (n= 8); Injured+stretching group (ISG) (n= 8); Injured +ultrasound + stretching group (IUSSG) (n= 8). The application of ultrasound started 72 hours after the contusion, using the 50 % pulsed mode, 0.5 W/cm2, 5 min, once a day, for five consecutive days. Passive manual stretching was started on the tenth day after injury, with four repetitions of 30 s each and 30 s rest between repetitions, once a day, five times per week, for a total of ten applications. After 22 days, the rats were euthanazied and the gastrocnemius of both limbs removed for desmin and laminin immunohistochemistry morphometric measurement. Analysis was conducted using ANOVA one way post-hoc Tukey to parametric data and Kruskall-Wallis for non-parametric data. The IUSSG animals showed a larger area of desmin than ISG (p<0.05). It was found a decrease in laminin comparing IUSG to IG. However, laminin area was higher in ISG than all groups (p<0.05). UST isolated or in combination with stretching influenced gastrocnemius regeneration in different manners. While stretching applied isolated enhanced gastrocnemius regeneration noticed by the increase in laminin area, in combination with TUS strengthened the muscle healing rising desmin area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]