estriction of exercise. During this period there were 10 injuries recorded that did not involve exercise, 5 being lower back strains, with an average time-loss of 17.2 days. There also were 17 illnesses reported, primarily colds and flu, with an average time-loss of 7.4 days. Based on the results from this small pilot study, a middle-aged exerciser can expect 2.4 exercise-related injuries per year with a total of 25.8 days of modified or restricted activity, 0.8 non-exercise injuries per year with 13.8 days of restricted activity, and 1.4 illnesses affecting 10.4 days. On the average, this middle-aged exerciser can expect 4.6 injury or illness episodes affecting 50 days each year.Twenty-five volunteer subjects were obtained from the local community (Eugene-Springfield, Oregon USA). They were all regularly exercising adults (19 male, 6 female) ranging in age from 43 to 70 years old (mean age = 54.0 years). Each subject signed an informed consent form and received a set of forms for recording daily exercise activity, injury/illness report forms, self-addressed stamped envelopes for returning the forms, and a set of detailed instructions for completing the forms. They also completed a questionnaire regarding previous exercise and injury history. The primary data collection forms are modifications of forms developed and used by the author over the past several years for a variety of studies of athletic injuries. They are designed to be as brief and simple to use as possible (thus increasing the probability that the forms will be completed and returned, and that the data will more likely be accurate) and yet yield sufficient information on injuries and exposure to the possibility of being injured to calculate and analyze injury rates and patterns. Subjects were instructed to record on a Daily Exercise Log each exercise sessionof any type that increased the heart rate for a minimum of 15 minutes. These forms collected data on the type, du...
