Prevention of Cold Injuries during Exercise - NBA.com.pdfVIP

SPECIAL COMMUNICATIONS Prevention of Cold Injuries during Exercise POSITION STAND This pronouncement was written for the American College of Sports Medicine by John W. Castellani, Ph.D., FACSM (co-chair); Andrew J. Young, Ph.D., FACSM (co-chair); Michel B. Ducharme, Ph.D.; Gordon G. Giesbrecht, Ph.D.; Ellen Glickman, Ph.D., FACSM; and Robert E. Sallis, M.D., FACSM. SUMMARY increase strain or injury risk, and David Bass, the noted environmental physiologist, once stated that ‘‘man in the It is the position of the American College of Sports Medicine that exercise can be performed safely in most cold-weather environments without incurring cold is not necessarily a cold man.’’ (6). However, there are cold-weather injuries. The key to prevention is use of a comprehensive risk scenarios (immersion, rain, low ambient temperature with management strategy that: a) identifies/assesses the cold hazard; b) identifies/ wind) where whole-body or local thermal balance cannot assesses contributing factors for cold-weather injuries; c) develops controls to be maintained during exercise-cold stress, contributing to mitigate cold stress/strain; d) implements c