Principles and methods of sports injury prevention do not include

Forced training with injuries to maintain the condition in the acute stage of injury, blind copying of professional athletes’ competition preparation training plans, complete resting without any relaxation after exercise, reliance on supplements or protective equipment to replace basic preparations, and short-term sudden increase in dosage to pursue breakthroughs in sports effects.

Don’t believe it. There was a young man in the running group I led a while ago who had just started running. After running for half a month, he felt that he was in good condition. I heard someone said, “Professional teams just gritted their teeth and carried it through with injuries.” His knees were already starting to hurt and he still had to run a 15-kilometer distance. Then he developed iliotibial band syndrome. After lying down for two months, he struggled to even go up and down stairs. Oh, by the way, there are also many fitness enthusiasts here who have different opinions, saying that they have friends who have recovered faster through training with injuries. In fact, a clear boundary must be drawn here: low-load functional training for non-acute chronic injuries after professional evaluation by a rehabilitation therapist belongs to the category of rehabilitation intervention and is not included in the discussion of "injury prevention". What we are talking about is an operation to avoid risks in advance when there is no injury. If acute pain has already occurred and still carry on with intensity, that is purely a knife to the injury, and naturally does not fall under the principle of prevention.

Speaking of which, there is a more common pitfall, which is that many people always think that "the professional is the best" and steal the training charts of professional players and copy them directly. Last week, I saw a fitness blogger sharing the strength training plan he had copied for the national weightlifting team. After practicing for three days, his waist broke out. He was lying on the bed and posting complaints about the video with a face full of grievances. Do you think it was unfair? The training plans of professional athletes are customized based on their innate physical conditions, the sports foundation accumulated over more than ten years, and the medical support team that is with the team throughout the process. Ordinary people do not have any supporting facilities, so they just copy high-intensity professional plans. That is not called preventing injuries, but actively looking for injuries.

Many people still have a misunderstanding. They think that having full equipment means opening an injury-free buff: a full set of knee pads, wrist pads, and waist pads, and the most expensive top-level cushioning model for running shoes. However, the warm-up only lasts for 30 seconds, and the movements are all wrong. After the exercise, they slump on the sofa. This is like installing the thickest bumper on your car, but driving without wearing a seat belt and always running red lights. An accident will happen when it should. Oh, yes, some people think that drinking creatine before a game and eating aminoglycosides every day can make them casually. This is even more outrageous. Supplements are essentially just nutritional supplements and have no therapeutic effect, let alone replacing basic warm-ups and movement corrections to prevent injuries. As for the operation of being completely still immediately after exercise, there are indeed different schools of debate in the industry: some people say that you should do static stretching immediately after exercise, some say that you should use a foam roller to relax the deep muscles first, and some say that you can just walk slowly for a few minutes to adjust your heart rate. However, no matter which viewpoint, no one advocates sitting still immediately after exercise. Metabolic waste is all blocked in the tense muscles, and the risk of injury during the next exercise will only be higher. This is obviously not a correct prevention method.

Every year in April and May, we meet a bunch of people in the gym trying to lose weight. They usually don't even bother to climb the stairs, but suddenly they run five kilometers a day and do strength training for an hour. Within a week, they suffer from knee pain or muscle strain, and some even suffer from severe rhabdomyolysis and end up in the hospital. It is a consensus in the industry that exercise load should be gradual. If you suddenly increase the amount of exercise that far exceeds the body's ability to bear, it would be strange if the body does not protest. This kind of sudden increase in amount is certainly not within the precautionary principle.

I made similar mistakes in badminton a few years ago. I was training unexpectedly for a city match, and I thought I could hit the ball violently just by wearing an elbow pad. As a result, I developed tennis elbow for half a year, and I had trouble even twisting a towel. After that, I realized that there is never any shortcut in sports injury prevention. All those who want to be lazy, want to take it hard, and want to take shortcuts are basically not based on the correct principles and methods. Talking to your body more is better than anything else.