Orienteering is a unique, demanding sport which requires its participants to have the endurance and agility of cross- country runners and the map-reading skills of wilderness explorers. In addition to creating lofty fitness levels, orienteering may offer an additional bonus. Since orienteers usually run over soft forested terrain rather than on concrete roadways, some exercise scientists have suggested that orienteering reduces the impact forces on athletes' feet and legs and leads to fewer overuse (chronic 'wear and tear') injuries, compared to normal running.

To determine orienteers' actual chances of getting hurt, Danish scientists recently studied male and female orienteers over a one- to three-year period. The Danes found that a typical orienteer averaged slightly more than one overuse injury per year, roughly the same frequency observed in serious runners. However, the incidence of acute injuries (ankle sprains, knees traumatized by a fall, and eyes gouged by a sharp tree limb) was also about one per year, considerably higher than the rate experienced by runners. (The occurrence of sudden, traumatic injuries during road running is quite rare.)
Fortunately, the acute injuries didn't curtail the orienteers' training for long; about seven days of workouts were lost for each acute malady. Overuse injuries were a different matter entirely, leading to an average of 35 days of missed training for each problem. As in running, the highest percentage of overuse injuries involved the knee.

Orienteers suffered from about two infections per year and lost 20 training days yearly because of illness. Overall, orienteers had to miss or cut back on their training about 70 times per year due to illness or injury.

Orienteering can boost fitness dramatically, but it also produces a fairly high rate of body damage, especially in terms of acute injury. Orienteers can take some steps to lower their risks of injury and infection, however. Since the Danish scientists found that marked increases in training load almost always preceded an overuse injury or infection, orienteers who want to increase the strenuousness of their training should expand the duration, frequency, or intensity of their workouts very, very gradually.

Another popular strategy for reducing injuries - stretching - probably doesn't really keep the injury bug away: the Danes found that orienteers who stretched before workouts had just as many maladies as orienteers who didn't. Also, there's probably little that orienteers can do to avoid acute injuries. The slippery rocks, steep inclines, and loose, uneven soil which make sudden falls and ankle sprains more likely are simply a normal part of the sport.

'Training, Injuries and Infections Among Elite Orienteers,' Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, vol. 3(4), pp. 273-278, November 1993


Useful Links
distance running injuries and training errors