What are the principles and methods of sports injury prevention?

The core principles can be summed up in eight words - adaptation priority and dynamic adjustment. The essence of all implementation methods is to focus on these two points, to control the exercise load within the current tolerance threshold of the body, and to avoid injuries from the root cause.

I have been doing amateur triathlon for almost 8 years. I have led running groups and practiced strength training with at least hundreds of people. The most injuries I have seen are not accidents caused by extreme sports at all, but are all caused by "hard work and mismatch". For example, there was a young man in the group who had just been running 5 kilometers for a month. He was heartbroken after watching his friend run a half-marathon and win a medal, so he signed up to compete directly without doing any long-distance training. Within 30 kilometers, he developed iliotibial band friction syndrome. He limped through the last few kilometers, and it took him three months before he dared to touch running shoes again.

When it comes to this, some people may use the "standard precautions" on the Internet to argue, such as whether it is necessary to warm up for 15 minutes and wear specified types of equipment? In fact, academic circles now have different views on many prevention details. Take warm-up as an example. The mainstream view does recommend that warm-up should focus on dynamic stretching and low-intensity muscle activation, and avoid long-term static stretching during the warm-up phase. However, there are also studies on people with insufficient flexibility. It has been shown that adding 1-2 minutes of targeted static stretching during warm-up can actually reduce the risk of fatigue. There is no one-size-fits-all standard for low muscle strain rates. It all depends on your current state. In the summer when the temperature is over 30 degrees, you have just walked two kilometers to the stadium. Five minutes of playing ball and moving your shoulders, knees and ankles are enough. In the winter when the temperature is below zero, you don’t have 10 minutes of jogging or joint circling. The muscles are not awakened at all, and it is easy to pull the muscle when you go hard.

After talking about the principles, let’s talk about the small details that can be implemented in practice. It is not a complicated rule. The most important thing is not to copy other people’s training plans. Most of the plans on Xiaohongshu to "build a peach butt in one week" and "break a half-marathon in three months" are made by people with two or three years of training experience. If you are a novice who has just touched dumbbells and just put on running shoes, practicing with them is equivalent to asking someone who has just obtained a driver's license to go directly to the track and drive F1. It will be strange if nothing happens. The same goes for equipment. Don't think that more expensive is better. I once saw a runner who was just getting started. He spent more than 1,000 yuan to buy top-grade racing carbon shoes. He already had flat feet, but the rigidity of the carbon plates caused the arches of his feet to stress incorrectly. After running for a week, the pain was so bad that he couldn't walk. I went to check for a metatarsal fatigue fracture. Later, he changed to a pair of entry-level cushioning shoes worth more than 200 yuan. After running for half a year, there was no problem.

Another point that many people overlook is that you must be able to "read" your own body's signals, and don't believe in the nonsense that "pain is normal and you can just get over it." Muscle soreness after exercise is a wide-area soreness that will lessen with activity. If there is a pinpoint pain in a certain joint or a throbbing pain when exerting force, it is the body's alarm. Last week, there was a young man in our gym. His knee was aching from playing fieldball, so he forced himself to sign up to play in the amateur league. When he jumped to grab a rebound, he tore his cruciate ligament. The surgery and recovery would take at least a year, which is completely avoidable.

In fact, to put it bluntly, preventing sports injuries is like charging an old mobile phone. Don’t wait until it automatically turns off every time before remembering to plug it in. Don’t just use super fast charging when nothing happens. Adjust the usage according to your own power situation so that it can be used for a long time. The same goes for exercise. Follow your own pace and it will work better than any general prevention guidelines.