What does sports injury prevention methods not include

Prevention methods for sports injuries do not include common misunderstandings such as forcing exercise with injuries, blindly copying high-level/professional training programs, relying on oral health supplements to replace systemic protection, and only doing a perfunctory warm-up for a few minutes. Many people mistakenly believe that these are trouble-free protective measures, but in fact they will greatly increase the risk of injury.

I met an old golfer last month at an amateur golf course I often go to. He had synovitis in his knees. He took a painkiller every time before playing, saying, "Suppress the pain in advance and the injury will not be more serious." As a result, he squatted on the ground for half the game and could not stand up. He went to the hospital to find out that he had third-degree meniscus wear and had to undergo arthroscopic surgery to rest for half a year. To put it bluntly, he regarded "covering up symptoms" as prevention and did not avoid the root cause of excessive joint load. How can it be considered protection?

In addition to this misunderstanding of hard work, there are also many novices who feel that "the more professional the plan, the more injury-proof" when they first get into sports. I once helped a girl who was preparing to run her first marathon adjust her training schedule. She initially copied the training plan for the provincial team reserve team that was posted online. She started running 60 kilometers per week. When I stopped her, she had already started to experience symptoms of tenderness in her tibia and fibula. If she continued to practice according to that plan, she would probably suffer from fatigue fractures, let alone finishing the race. Professional training programs are originally designed to adapt to the muscle mass and joint tolerance of athletes accumulated over many years. Ordinary people's hard training does not prevent injuries at all, but actively seeks injuries.

Speaking of which, there is another controversial point that has been discussed in the industry for a long time, that is, many people assume that doing a full set of static stretching before exercise is a standard preventive measure. The two schools of thought are not completely unified at present: one school of research believes that static stretching of a single part for more than 30 seconds before exercise will temporarily reduce muscle explosiveness and support, which will easily lead to strains during running, jumping and explosive sports. The other school believes that for parts with particularly poor flexibility, moderate short-term static stretching of about 10 seconds can increase mobility and reduce the risk of injury. The only consensus currently reached is that if long-term static stretching is used as the only warm-up content, it is definitely not an effective injury prevention method.

To put it bluntly, prevention of sports injuries is like preparing rain gear in advance when going out on a rainy day. You can’t say that I stepped into a deep puddle on purpose while wearing waterproof shoes, nor can you say that I just rushed out when I saw others wearing raincoats without holding an umbrella, nor can I dare to stay in the rain for two hours after taking cold medicine in advance. These shortcut operations are not serious injury prevention methods in essence.