Rustam Kamchiev: an orthopaedist of 21 years in practice. An European Champion, an International Sports Champion, the Vice President of the Russian Armwrestling Federation.

Is armwrestling dangerous? Let's make this question a bit easier. First, let's divide all the injuries into two categories: training and competition injuries. In my 20 years of experience I've seen serious competition injuries many times (fractures and lingament/muscle tears). Despite that, armwrestling is still less dangerous than many other sports.

We almost never experience sudden, intentional or accidental, hits from the opponent that are not regulated by the rules.

They don't hit us on the head causing serious knock-outs, they don't hit our legs like in football where players often end up on a stretcher.

If I tell you which sport is considered the most traumatic, you'll be very surprised. It's cycling. If a cyclist gets into a tight group, they get blocked and a few dozen of people immediately receive serious injuries.

In armwrestling everything is more predictable.

The main threat to a sports person is the temptation to lift the pressure during a battle from their muscles to their joints and bones. This way, many dangerous situations are created and they are mostly dangerous for the person themselves.

How do we prevent these situations and injuries we get that way? A smart trainer, common sense and professional referees. For example, as a referee at amateur competitions, I would turn the competitors' bodies to be parallel to the table edge when things got dangerous. I wasn't going by the rules entirely but at least the athletes' bones were intact.

What about training injuries? What are their causes?

Armwrestling is not original here. All strength athletes and wrestlers get similar injuries: mostly muscle tears and sprains. The main cause of injuries is inappropriate training technique, inappropriate weight and too much enthusiasm. Other things that increase the probability of an injury are malnutrition, lack of sleep, overall fatigue etc.

Experienced sports people can “brag” about everlasting inflamations that doesn't leave them for years. These kinds of problems occur when armwrestlers don't rest long enough for an injury to heal and start working out at the gym or competing too soon. It's obvious that an experienced and professional trainer can prevent us from injuries that can happen during training. They will give you a proper training plan, show you good technique of training and fighting and will slow down the most enthusiastic and restless sports people.

I want to tell all the amateur athletes: armwrestling is a relatively safe sport! Train with a good trainer, take care of yourself and you will be injury-free!