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Workout blamed for Iowa hospitalizations by The Sports Network
Iowa City, IA (Sports Network) – A strenuous squat workout has been cited as the cause for the hospitalization of 13 Iowa football players in January.
A five-person faculty-staff committee appointed by University of Iowa president Sally Mason released its report Wednesday to the board of regents.
The committee concluded that the workout, conducted January 20, resulted in rhabdomyolysis — a stress-induced muscle injury syndrome that can affect the kidneys — in the 13 players and unusual soreness in most of the players it surveyed.
The players were hospitalized several days after the workout and were gradually released soon after.
The report said that the injured players were “completely blameless” and that no injured player had taken any contributing illegal substance. It also said no football coach, trainer, or physician knowingly did anything wrong.
But it concluded that communications were handled poorly and set forth 10 recommendations. Among them were that the football program should reaffirm its recent decision to abandon the type of workout that caused the 13 players’ injuries.
The report details the January 20 workout, which was the first intensive session following the winter break. Specifically, it detailed a portion of the workout that required players to perform 100 back squats with a barbell weighted with half of the maximum weight each player had lifted at his last assessment.
It said players were given as much time as they needed to complete the 100 squats, because the goal was to create a sense of accomplishment. Coaches at times told players to take breaks because of deteriorating form, and all but one player completed the task.
Players had noted severe leg pain and discolored urine in the days following the workout, and the first players to be hospitalized were admitted to University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics (UIHC) on Monday, January 24. Players were gradually released in the following week.
The report noted that it cannot definitively say why the particular exercise had those effects, particularly because similar workouts in previous years did not injure players to that extent.
“Most likely, however, the combination of a three-week layoff from supervised workouts, the percent of their body weight lifted by certain players, and the high number of repetitions required in this workout were primarily responsible for most of the rhabdo cases,” the report said.
The report also said that other players who went through the workout might have had the syndrome, but did not report it or recognize it.
The committee, which was convened on February, reviewed medical and scientific literature on rhabdomyolysis for its investigation, and talked to experts on the condition and strength and conditioning.
The members also interviewed Iowa football staff members and players, requested the input of parents, reviewed some of the players’ medical records, looked at the results of a random drug test conducted January 21, and conducted an anonymous survey of the football players.
The report also recommended that everyone involved with the football program be educated about the syndrome, and that the program develop ways to detect when players are experiencing unusual complications from workouts.
Other recommendations were: testing the whole team when a few members become ill or injured after a strenuous workout, addressing the affected players’ long-term health needs, and developing an emergency management plan.
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