The number one aim of any good cricket fitness plan should be to prevent injury.

It's not possible to score runs and take wickets if you are on the sidelines due to a hamstring strain or other preventable injury. So while being strong, supple, fast and athletic is an important element, it's important to start by making sure you do no harm.

Cricket encourages movements that can build up an increased risk of injury. This is especially true of fast bowlers, but applies to all positions: striking a ball, throwing a ball and sprinting, for example, are all activities that are associated with increased damage to the body.

Sadly training to counter this gradual breakdown does not always happen.

In fact, some fitness programs actually increase the risk of injury in the hunt for other goals (like getting a hard workout or building muscle size at the expense of cricket specific strength).

Most club cricketers don't have access to a professional strength coach who can guide them through the maze of training options. You may have to work everything out for yourself. Or perhaps you are a member of the local gym where the trainers work mostly with housewives wanting to lose weight and have little knowledge of injury prevention in sport.

Is injury prevention the same as rehab?

It's a common misconception to think that injury prevention is the same as rehabilitation from injury. They exist on the same scale, but are certainly not the same thing.

Rehab requires specialist intervention from a qualified physiotherapist to get back from injury. The exercises are designed to bring your body back to normal function straight after an injury has healed. An injury prevention program looks a lot like a performance enhancement program:

• Learning to run, jump, stop, change direction and land with good form.
• Improving mobility, stability and balance.
• Strengthening muscles (particularly the core).
• Improving eccentric strength (power training).
• Ironing out imbalances in mobility and strength between the left and right sides of the body.

The good news is that following some simple training principles can allow you to train for your goals and prevent injury at the same time.

For the player working alone or the coach dealing with young players this step can be tough but it is essential. Our bodies and minds are excellent at hiding weaknesses so we don't know they are there. However, over time these weaknesses can become full blown injuries.

The classic example is the fast bowler who has an action that causes too much rotation at the lumbar (lower) spine. It feels fine when he or she is bowling but gets stiff afterwards. The natural inclination is to stretch the lower back to relieve the pain, however all this does in improve the flexibility of an area that should be made more stable to counter the excessive rotational force. The end result is often a stress fracture and a sidelined bowler.

However, such problems can be avoided with proper screening. The screen is not a test, but a analysis of basic human movement to identify potentially weak areas. If you are not lucky enough to have a physio who can perform a professional screen you can do your own screen thanks to physical therapist Gray Cook. He has published a cut down screen for amateur players (or coaches without access to conditioning experts in his book "Athletic Body in Balance". The screen covers the basic human movements with only very cheap equipment required.

The book goes on to show you some simple ways to correct any imbalances in stability or mobility helping you cut any potential injuries off before they emerge.

One myth of fitness training is that it has to be hard. You have to be exhausted at the end and sore the next day. You have to 'go for the burn' and lift as much weight as possible.

While there is a place at certain times for this attitude, mostly it's wrong and increases the chance of injury. Often when you try and push out the extra work you end up going beyond the point of fatigue. The more tired you are the more likely you are to get injured.

While you can't avoid that on the pitch; you can still train hard without pushing yourself beyond the point of no return. For example when weight lifting remember that the moment you lose form on a set is the moment you end that set. Or when you are training for speed and/or power it's your nervous system that gets fatiqued first. You can't feel that until much later so be cautious with your training volume.

As Vern Gambetta says, you can't make an athlete with one training session, but you can break one. A slow steady increase in performance will always work, trying to improve fitness in 2 weeks by knocking yourself out never does.

You can never be too strong for cricket. Strength in your muscles and joints means improved resistance to injury. If you train in movement patterns similar to the basic human movements: pushing, pulling, squatting and lunging you will create a body with the strength to function effectively on the pitch.

However strength in itself is not enough. Fast bowlers in particular need to be mobile in the hips, shoulders and ankles to allow both speed and injury resistance. You can learn how to train for a strong and mobile body here.

It's important to mention that injury prevention can get very individualised; everyone is different and had different potential for injury. However if you follow the guidelines above you will reduce you chances of a preventable injury and stay in the park longer.

If you want a more comprehensive guide to reducing injury risk and increasing cricket specific fitness, check out county strength coach Rob Ahmun's guide on PitchVision Academy.