Sports injury prevention programs and measures

There is no need to rely on expensive protective gear, nor does it need to copy Internet celebrity training plans. The essence is to adhere to three underlying principles - action mode takes precedence over load weight, individual adaptation takes precedence over universal standards, and dynamic adjustment takes precedence over fixed plans. If you can achieve these three points, you can avoid at least 80% of non-accidental sports injuries.

Last week at the sports rehabilitation center I met a young man who had just finished a half-marathon. The pain from patellar tendonitis made it difficult for him to go up and down stairs. He said that he usually warms up before every run and stretches after every run. How could he still be injured? After asking, I found out that in order to rush for the PB, he suddenly increased his 10-kilometer pace from 6 minutes to 4 and a half minutes last week. When he landed, his knees buckled hard and his movements were completely deformed. It was no wonder that it was not hurt.

When it comes to movement standards, there are actually two factions arguing in the circle: one is the "absolute standards faction", which believes that the knees cannot go over the toes when squatting, and the forefoot must touch the ground when running. Any movement that does not conform to the template is wrong; the other is the "individual adaptation faction", which believes that everyone's hip, knee, and ankle mobility, muscle strength distribution, and even leg type are different, and there is no universal standard movement. The national-level weightlifting team rehabilitation trainer I have worked with actually prefers the latter - I once worked with a student who was born with limited hip abduction. According to the standard squat stance, the waist must be bent at the end. Later, he narrowed the stance distance by 10 centimeters, but he squatted steadily. He squatted for 8 sets with a weight of 120 kilograms, and his waist was not a problem at all. Of course, this does not mean that standard movements are useless. They are a reference baseline for novices. You must first know what the standards are, and then adjust them according to your own physical condition. If you make random changes at first, you may easily cause problems.

Oh, by the way, many people's injuries are not caused by movement at all, but because they don't realize that their bodies are "tired" long ago. A guy I met while playing basketball in the past stayed up all night on Friday to change the project plan. On Saturday morning, he told us, "I'm in great shape today, I can dunk." However, when he landed on the rebound after grabbing a rebound, his foot sprained to a 90-degree angle. Later, the rehabilitation technician touched his calf. The intestinal muscles are as hard as dried bacon. They have been so tense that their proprioception has decreased - that is, the kind of perception that you can know the position of your feet without looking at them. After descending, you can't even react if your feet are crooked when you land on the ground. Isn't it sprained? I now do three small tests before every exercise: stand on one leg for 10 seconds without shaking, squat to the end without joint pain, and circle the shoulders without feeling stuck. If one of them fails to meet the standard, I will directly reduce the intensity by half today. At most, I can walk slowly or do a few sets of light weight activation. I will never do it hard.

Different types of exercise have completely different focus on prevention. For example, in endurance sports such as running and cycling, many people ask, "Do I have to buy top-grade cushioning shoes that cost thousands of dollars to avoid injuring my knees?" In fact, the academic community is still not sure about this: some studies say that thick-soled cushioning shoes can reduce the impact force of landing by 30%, and some tracking experiments show that people who run in thick-soled shoes for a long time have a 15% higher probability of knee injury than those who wear thin-soled shoes. The core reason is that thick-soled shoes will subconsciously make you step harder, which offsets the advantage of cushioning. My own experience is that if you are a new runner with weak ankle strength and are used to landing on the back of your foot, then cushioning shoes can really help cushion you. If you have been running for two or three years, are used to landing on the forefoot and have sufficient calf strength, wearing thin-soled racing shoes will make it less likely to sprain your feet. When it comes to strength training such as lifting weights, the most common mistake is to rush the weight blindly. I have seen too many people squatting until their faces are distorted and their waists are almost bent into shrimps, and they add weights. This is not training muscles, but causing trouble for the lumbar spine. There are also explosive sports such as basketball and tennis. The most taboo is to do large-scale explosive movements without warming up. Let alone ordinary people, even professional players must do 20 minutes of dynamic activation before the game. Otherwise, sudden changes of direction or jump shots can easily strain the hamstring muscles on the back of the thigh.

When it comes to protective gear, many people think that they can just wear knee pads and wrist pads and make them casually. This is actually the biggest misunderstanding. Protective gear is essentially a "compensation tool", not a "golden bell": For example, if the quadriceps around your knees are not strong enough, wearing knee pads can give you extra support and reduce joint pressure. However, if you rely on knee pads to bear weight that you cannot squat at all, it will make the muscles more and more dependent on the power of the protective gear, and without the knee pads, you will be more susceptible to injury. Now, unless I'm doing heavy deadlifts, I don't wear a waist brace at all. I'm afraid that my core muscles will get used to being supported by a waist brace and their strength will get weaker the more I practice.

Finally, let me talk about the most easily overlooked point: In fact, there are early warnings for injuries, so don’t bear it forcefully. If these three conditions occur during exercise, stop immediately: the first is a sharp stabbing pain, not the dull pain of muscle soreness, but a pain like needle pricks, which is usually a precursor to tendon or ligament strain; the second is a sudden inability to exert force when exerting force, accompanied by a sore and empty feeling, which most likely means that the muscles have reached the limit of fatigue; the third is joint snapping with pain. I had a student before who had shoulder pain during bench press for almost a month and ended up suffering from acromial impingement syndrome, which took him half a year to recover from. It was completely unnecessary.

Actually, there is nothing too mysterious about sports injury prevention. To put it bluntly, you have to treat your body as your friend and don’t compete with it. Don’t watch others run a marathon and follow suit, or squat 200 kilograms when others do. No matter how good other people’s plans are, they may not be suitable for you. After all, the purpose of our exercise is to live more comfortably. If we injure our bodies just to get some results, we are putting the cart before the horse, right?