What are the principles and methods of sports injury prevention?

In fact, to sum up, there are two core directions. One is to increase the body's "anti-stress ability" in advance, and the other is to minimize risk exposure throughout the exercise. To put it bluntly, it is to not let the pressure on the body exceed the upper limit of what it can bear at the moment.

When I was leading a running group a while ago, I met a new guy. He was on the school team when he was in school. He felt that he had a good foundation, so he signed up for a half marathon. He had never even run 5 kilometers continuously before, so he just shook his arms and legs casually before running. As soon as he reached 12 kilometers, he suffered from iliotibial band friction syndrome. I stopped and it was so painful that I couldn’t even ride the shared bicycle, so I finally asked a friend to pick him up. This is a typical example of failing to do both—not building up endurance in advance and practicing the basic strength of the core and hips. I also didn’t control the pace during exercise and didn’t pay attention to the body’s warning signs in time.

There is actually quite a lot of controversy over warm-ups in the industry today. One group of studies says that if static stretching is included in the warm-up session, it will reduce muscle explosiveness and increase the risk of strain. The other group believes that short-term static stretching of tight muscle groups can quickly increase joint mobility and avoid movement deformation. When it comes to actual training, there is no need to worry about right and wrong. You can feel the state of your muscles when you warm up. For example, after sitting for a long time, your gluteal muscles are as stiff as frozen plasticine. You will definitely not be able to exert your strength by doing dynamic jumping jacks. Spend 30 seconds to crack your hips, pull the back of your thighs, and then do dynamic activations such as high leg raises and back kicks. It is much more useful than sticking to the dogma of "only dynamic exercises during warm-up."

Many people think that injury prevention is only a matter of the day of exercise. In fact, it is not the case. The foundation of basic abilities lies in daily life. I used to have a golfer who only played basketball once a week. He usually drove to and from get off work and rarely moved when sitting in the office. His knees would hurt for two or three days after each game. Later, he was advised to spend 10 minutes every day doing wall squats and calf raises to strengthen his lower limbs. After playing three times, the knee pain problem was completely gone. This is how the principle of "raising the tolerance threshold in advance" has been implemented in daily life.

It's not enough to have basic skills, you also have to keep up with the details on the sports field. Don’t believe the nonsense that “pain means muscle growth”. Sharp stabbing pains, crackling noises in joints, and soreness that only occurs on one side are all signs of distress sent by the body. Last week during the weekly game, I met a young man who sprained his ankle while grabbing a rebound. He felt the pain was so painful that he had to continue playing. In the end, he failed to land firmly and suffered an avulsion fracture. The minor injury could have healed in two weeks, but he finally had to lie down for two months before he could get off the ground. Don’t take the equipment issue seriously. If you wear sneakers to run a marathon or flat canvas shoes to play badminton, it is equivalent to removing half of the cushioning from your joints. The risk is several times higher than others.

In the final analysis, sports injury prevention does not have so many fancy rules and regulations. Don’t rush to an intensity that is far beyond your ability. It is better to be more aware of your body’s reaction than to memorize many pieces of popular science.