Principles of sports injury prevention

Matching ability and exercise intensity, checking your own risk points in advance, and dynamically adjusting the load throughout the entire process - this is the most practical conclusion I have accumulated after spending 8 years in the gym, following 3 amateur running teams, and recovering from 3 sports injuries myself.

Don’t think these three things sound false. I have seen too many people fall into this trap. A college student who just joined the team last month occasionally ran 3 kilometers at school. When he got excited, he decided to run a city half marathon. He started training according to the "Elite Runner 16-Week Training Plan" online. He ran 10 kilometers twice in the first week. Before the second week, he came to me with a limp. He had iliotibial band syndrome and it was so painful that he had to go up and down stairs. There are also many people who think that buying expensive protective gear can prevent injuries. I once saw a little girl wearing professional knee pads worth thousands of dollars and dancing with Pamela for an hour of high-impact jumping exercises. She already had an old disease of patella softening, and she went to the hospital in pain the next day. Protective gear is the last line of defense, not a talisman made by you.

In fact, there has been controversy in the sports circle about the priority of prevention: Most veterans in the strength circle believe that movement patterns are the first priority. If the movement is wrong, anything will be injured. The best example is that my waist flashed when I was doing deadlifts. At that time, I was greedy for weight, and I hunched my waist and pulled up. I couldn't straighten up on the spot. It took me more than two months to dare to do it. Touch the barbell; but many coaches of endurance events pay more attention to load management. Their logic is that even if there is a slight problem with the movement, as long as the load does not exceed the upper limit of the body's tolerance, there will be no problem - you can see that many amateur runners' running form is not up to standard, and they have not been injured after running for five or six years, just because they have not used impulse. There is nothing wrong with both of these statements, but they are applicable to different groups of people. Beginners should first focus on the details of the movements. Those with a certain foundation in exercise can just pay more attention to their own load fluctuations.

When it comes to risk screening, many people’s first reaction is to have a professional motor function assessment, but it is not such a big deal before every exercise. My own habit is to do a "pre-check" on myself every time I change clothes: Is my back from training the day before still sore today? Do you have a tight and compressed feeling in your old injured right shoulder? Have you stayed up late or caught a cold recently? If the condition is not right, the training plan for the day will be cut in half without any effort. Here I have to mention a warm-up question that everyone has been arguing about for many years: Should I do static stretching? Strength people believe that static stretching before training will lose muscle strength, but it is easy to get injured due to unstable force. Running people also say that people with tight hamstring muscles will get cramps after running two kilometers if they don’t do a few stretches in advance. In fact, is there any standard answer? If you have poor flexibility and your hamstrings feel as hard as rocks, there is nothing wrong with pulling them 30 seconds in advance. If you plan to PR on the bench press today, then static chest pulls are not necessary. It is more reliable to do a few sets of small-weight dumbbell bench presses to warm up and activate. I read statistics from sports medicine journals before and found that a targeted, specialized warm-up is 32% more effective in preventing injuries than just running for 5 minutes and doing a set of general radio gymnastics. To put it bluntly, whatever part you want to practice, just move the parts first, and don't do useless work. Of course, don’t overdo the warm-up. I met a fitness brother before. He only did dynamic stretching for 40 minutes in the warm-up. When he put on the weight to do the leg exercises, his legs were weak. When he squatted in the second position, he wobbled and almost hit himself. The gain outweighed the gain.

As for dynamic adjustment, this is the point that I have seen most people ignore. Many people seem to have set KPIs when exercising. Today they must run 5 kilometers and complete 10 sets of deadlifts. They must hold back the pain. It is euphemistically called "strengthening their will", but it is really not a mistake. An older brother I once coached started to feel pain on the inside of his knee when he was running a half-marathon at 18 kilometers. Hearing the people next to him say, "Persistence is victory," he gritted his teeth and finished the finish line. As a result, he injured his meniscus for the second time. After resting for more than half a year, he still dares not run more than 3 kilometers. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you should stop immediately when you feel uncomfortable. There is also a term for “tolerance training” in endurance circles, which means that the soreness of muscles can be tolerated appropriately, which can improve the body’s tolerance. But you have to know the difference. Muscle soreness is a large area of ​​dull pain. If there is a pinprick-like sting in the joints or ligaments, or pain at a certain point when exerting force, don’t hesitate, stop immediately, and don’t compete with your body.

In fact, after all is said and done, is there any golden rule that is 100% effective in preventing sports injuries? To put it bluntly, don’t regard online tutorials as the Bible, and don’t compare exercise volume or weight with others. Your own body is more reliable than any standard. If you have ever fallen once and recovered from an injury for three months, you will know that compared to any PB or training clock, the most profitable thing is to be able to practice safely and continuously.