Recommended Readings for Sports Injury Prevention

Ordinary sports enthusiasts can directly read "Sports Injury Anatomy" and "Sports Rehabilitation Complete Book". Two books are enough. Those with more than half a year of regular training experience can supplement "Functional Training in Sports". Those who prefer traditional health care ideas can also use "Traditional Chinese Medicine Sports Health Care and Injury Prevention and Treatment", which can basically cover 90% of daily sports injury prevention and home treatment needs of mild injuries.

A few years ago, when I was practicing CrossFit, I hit heavy weights without warming up. I strained my rotator cuff and couldn't lift my arm for almost half a month. I was searching for information on the Internet, and sometimes it said I needed surgery, and sometimes I needed to rest for three months.

The first thing I want to talk about is "Anatomy of Sports Injuries". The biggest advantage of this book is that it is not selective at all, and you can understand it even if you have no medical foundation at all. The full-color human anatomy diagrams are particularly clear. Each common injury is marked with the corresponding pain location, easily induced wrong actions, and immediate preventive solutions. For example, if you have been feeling tightness and pain on the outside of your knee recently while running, turn to the chapter on the lower limbs and press the protruding bone on the outside of your knee against the picture. If you feel pain, it is basically iliotibial band friction syndrome. The book directly gives three targeted stretching actions, as well as stride control points to pay attention to in daily running. A friend of mine in the running group suffered from pain for almost a month, and most of it was relieved after a week of stretching. Of course, some professional rehabilitation practitioners complain that this book is too shallow and does not even include injury classification. But to be honest, we ordinary enthusiasts do not need to take the rehabilitation certification exam. We can distinguish situations where we need to go to the hospital immediately and adjust our actions ourselves. This is enough for us. If the content is too deep, we will easily become confused. I used to watch short videos and saw a blogger selling an injury prevention manual he compiled. When I bought it, I almost copied the entire content, and added a lot of wrong action instructions. It was a waste of tens of dollars, so it’s better to just read the original version.

If you can already distinguish between ordinary delayed onset muscle soreness and pathological stabbing pain, and want to take preventive measures in advance, or even treat minor injuries at home, "The Complete Book of Sports Rehabilitation" is a safer choice. This is a general textbook officially recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine. The content is rigorous. From high-frequency injuries in different sports such as running, playing ball, and iron lifting, to emergency treatment after injury and a step-by-step training plan during the recovery period, everything is clearly written. However, I should also mention here that there is controversy over some of the contents of this book in the industry. For example, it recommends immobilizing for 3-7 days after an ankle sprain. However, many domestic sports rehabilitation practitioners now advocate that mild range of motion training can be done after 24 hours. If you think its plan is conservative, you can It is adjusted based on the latest clinical guidelines, but its core logic - to give priority to avoiding secondary injuries after injury and to gradually restore function, is never wrong. I followed the scapular stabilization training for my shoulder injury at the time. Although the recovery was a bit slow, it has not recurred in almost three years now.

If you have been doing regular exercise for more than half a year, such as regularly lifting irons, running half-marathons, or playing competitive ball games, and want to reduce the root cause of injuries, you can read "Functional Training in Sports". This book is not specifically about injuries, but it helps you change your movements from the perspective of force generation mode and functional assessment. Many people are injured not because they did not warm up, but because their force generation mode has been wrong for several years. For example, when squatting and deadlifting, the waist exerts force first, and when running, the feet are habitually tilted outward. Over time, joint wear and tear will definitely cause problems. Oh, by the way, powerlifting or bodybuilding enthusiasts may feel that the training ideas in this book are more functional for competitive sports, and are different from the training logic for muscle hypertrophy. You don’t have to follow them all. Just pick out the functional assessment and joint stability parts. Others can be chosen as needed. There is no need to follow other people’s systems.

There are many people who like traditional maintenance methods, so this book "Traditional Chinese Medicine Exercise Health Preservation and Injury Prevention and Treatment" is quite suitable. It talks about a lot of warm-up guidance before exercise, massage and moxibustion methods after injuries, and what exercises are suitable for people with different physical constitutions. For example, people with yang deficiency should not always go for winter swimming, and people with heavy humidity should not do long-term outdoor running in heavy rain. It is all written in detail. Of course, if you are a supporter of pure Western medicine concepts, you may feel that there is no evidence-based basis for the meridians and physical constitution, so you don’t need to read it. After all, the core of injury prevention is to look at movements and intensity. Just choose the method you believe in. There is no need to get entangled in schools.

To be honest, many of my friends bought a bunch of sports-related books, and they ended up gathering dust on the bookshelves. It would be better to buy one first, take a few minutes a week to flip through two pages, and see what to pay attention to based on the sports you are playing recently. It is much better than waiting for an injury and then looking for solutions everywhere. By the way, if it really hurts for more than three days, or it is so swollen that you can't move, don't blindly read the book and carry it on your own. Go to the hospital to find a doctor in the rehabilitation department or sports medicine department. The book is for early prevention. If there is a problem, you still have to find a professional. Don't try and make mistakes with your own body.