Nezam Nemati
Sajjad Mohammadyari

Military cadets are exposed to intense physical demands in their training and operational environments, which increases their risk of lower extremity injuries. Lower extremity injuries cause morbidity, disability and attrition in military populations and high financial cost to the military. Therefore, effective injury prevention programs are needed. A training program, the “Stop-X” has been designed to prevent lower extremity injuries.The purpose of this randomized-controlled trial was to investigate the effect of the “Stop-X” program on lower extremity injury rates in military cadets.Two cohorts of young adult cadets were recruited and were randomly assigned to either an intervention (n=۴۰) or a control group (n=۴۰). The incidence rate and severity of all lower extremity injuries that occurred during the ۸-week course were recorded. The intervention group performed the “Stop-X” training program as a warm-up for ۲۰ minutes, ۳ times a week, and the control group continued with their routine warm-up in physical fitness sessions. The “Stop-X” is a ۲۰-min program consisting of twenty-nine exercises for core stability, lower extremity strength, balance and agility. The main outcome measures were injuries of the lower extremities.A total of ۳۷ lower extremity injuries occurred. Fewer injuries were reported in the intervention group compared with the control group (۱۴ in the intervention group and ۲۳ in the control group, p = ۰.۰۰۱). Ankle (۱۶), knee (۱۳), foot (۶) and thigh (۲) were the most common sites of injury respectively. There was a significantly lower rates of ankle injuries in the intervention group compared to the control group (rate ratio = ۰.۵۷, ۹۵% CI = ۰.۴۳ to ۰.۹۸, p = ۰.۰۲). Moreover, there was a significantly lower rates of knee injuries in the intervention group compared to the control group (rate ratio = ۰.۳۵, ۹۵% Confidence interval= ۰.۱۶ to ۰.۷۹, p = ۰.۰۰۱).The “Stop-X” training program can reduce the rate of lower extremity injuries in young adult cadets. Therefore, it is recommended to use the “Stop-X” training program as a warm-up for cadets in military service.

Stop-X؛ lower extremity injury prevention؛ Cadet