Sports Injury Prevention Anatomy

The core anatomical logic of sports injury prevention is never to memorize the starting and ending points of muscles and copy universal standard movements. It is to first understand the "uniqueness of one's own anatomical structure" + "correspond to the high-risk locations of stress concentration in sports", and then adjust the movements according to the special force-generating habits - 90% of ordinary enthusiasts common chronic injuries such as runner's knee, tennis elbow, and shoulder impact can be avoided in advance by relying on this logic, and there is no need to wait for the pain to see a rehabilitation practitioner.

Last week I met a young man in the rehabilitation studio who had been running half-marathons for three months. An MRI showed a second-degree injury to the lateral meniscus. He said that all the popular science he read told him to practice static squats with knee pads. He squatted for 15 minutes every day until his legs shook. The more he squatted, the more pain he felt. After measuring the strength lines of his lower limbs, we discovered that his tibia was born with 15 degrees of external rotation. When squatting, his knees involuntarily buckled in. All the stress was placed on the outside of the meniscus. The more he practiced, the more serious the injury.

There are currently two mainstream ideas in the sports circle regarding injury prevention. One group believes in the "universal action template". Regardless of individual differences, everyone follows the standards of "squatting with knees no longer than toes" and "light cushioning when running". The advantage is that it is highly universal and easy to spread. It can indeed avoid 80% of low-level mistakes for novices with no foundation at all.； The other school is the "individual anatomy adaptation school", which believes that everyone's bone torsion angles, joint mobility, and muscle proportions are different. There is no universal standard at all. Structural assessment must be done first before adjusting movements. This school's view is more accurate but the threshold is high, making it difficult for ordinary enthusiasts to get the hang of it.

A few years ago, when I was practicing CrossFit, I suffered from subacromial impingement for more than half a year. I practiced shoulder external rotation according to the general rehabilitation program on the Internet until I couldn't lift my arm, but it still hurt like hell. Later, I took a three-dimensional CT scan of my shoulder and found out that I was born with type III acromion - to put it bluntly. The problem is that the bone on the acromion has an extra little hook longer than others, and the gap under the acromion is naturally narrow. Others can do the behind-the-neck press with no problem. I did it once to wear out the tendons. Later, I changed all the back-of-the-neck movements to front raises and low-weight dumbbell presses, and the pain disappeared within three months.

Many people blame their weak quadriceps for knee pain and practice silent squats to the death. In fact, do you know? About 10% of people are born with high-positioned patellas. The patellas will not get stuck in the track of the femoral pulley until the knee is bent to 30 degrees. If you ask them to squat to 90 degrees, it is equivalent to grinding the patellas against the bone. The longer they squat, the more the cartilage wears out. In the gym, we often see people’s knees snapping when they squat to the end, and they think it is “normal joint snapping.” In fact, nine out of ten people with high patellas are trying to build up their own cartilage. I met a girl who had been practicing bodybuilding for three years before, and this was the problem. She limited the knee bend angle to 45 degrees for leg training, and the snapping disappeared in two months, and the weight of the squat legs also increased by 10 kilograms.

Let’s talk about the most troublesome “tennis elbow” for people who play badminton and tennis. Many people only rub the extensor muscles of their forearms when they feel pain, or wear elbow pads to carry it. In fact, you can know by measuring your elbow valgus angle. Some people are born with elbow valgus 10 degrees greater than ordinary people. When swinging the racket, the tension of the common extensor tendon is 1.5 times that of normal people. What’s the use of just rubbing it? I know a badminton coach who retired from the provincial team. He himself has a large angle of elbow valgus. When he teaches students, he will first measure the angle of the elbow. If the valgus is large, he will directly adjust the grip angle 15 degrees outward. It is more effective than teaching 10 swings. It is also interesting here. In the coaching circle, it is generally believed that if the movements are correct, there will be no injuries. In the rehabilitation circle, it is generally believed that if the muscles are strong enough, there will be no injuries. In fact, both sides are right, but the premise of the anatomical structure must be laid out first. If the structure is wrong, no matter how standard the movements are and how strong the strength is, the stress will still go to places where it should not go.

Ordinary enthusiasts don’t need to spend so much money on CT scans as soon as they come out. They can do a preliminary screening at home. For example, stand barefoot in front of a mirror and stand naturally to see if your knees are facing your toes. If your knees are buckled inward, change the landing angle of your feet first when running and jumping so that your toes face the direction of your knees. This will be more effective than practicing 10 sets of glute bridges. ； If your shoulder hurts when you raise your hand to around 120 degrees, try externally rotating your arm 30 degrees before raising it. If it no longer hurts, it means that your subacromial space is originally narrow. In the future, when lifting irons or doing yoga, don’t forcefully raise your arm over your ears, let alone do blind pull-downs on the back of your neck.

To put it bluntly, the anatomy of sports injury prevention is not the dry terms in a book at all, it is an instruction manual for your own body. Those "one movement to cure knee pain" and "universal running tutorials" on the Internet are originally based on the average anatomical structure of most people. If your natural structure is different from the average, being rigid will only be counterproductive. After all, your own body is the only standard answer.