Sports injury recovery industry

The domestic sports injury recovery industry is currently in a stage where "the explosion of mass sports demand has created a trillion-level market space, but the supply-side professional capabilities are uneven, and the evidence-based medical system and commercial traffic logic continue to pull" - for ordinary sports enthusiasts, there is no need to blindly pursue Internet celebrity institutions, expensive ones may not be right. For practitioners, the window period to make quick money by speculating on concepts is closing, and the implementation of "evidence-based + personalized" services is the long-term way to survive.

Last week I just met a friend who had been running marathons for three and a half years. He sprained his knee and refused to go to the hospital to get an appointment in the sports medicine department. He browsed a short video and found an internet celebrity rehabilitation store, which said, "It can be cured without taking a picture or touching it with your hands." This is really not an exception. I have been in this industry for six or seven years and have seen too many things.

There are actually two forces running parallel in the industry now, and no one can convince the other. One group is a rehabilitation therapist who comes from the public hospital system. They are well-educated and believe in evidence-based medicine. Those who come first read the imaging report, and are evaluated on seven or eight items of joint mobility, muscle strength, and movement patterns. The rehabilitation program is slow but steady, and they will never mess with you. But the problems of this kind of institution are also very real: it is hard to get an appointment. Doctors have to see dozens of patients a day, and it is impossible for them to give you the details of squat movements for half an hour. Most of the rehabilitation programs are general templates. If you want to make adjustments to your running posture and weight lifting habits, they really don’t have the energy.

Therefore, practitioners with fitness and physical therapy backgrounds just fill this gap. Many reliable rehabilitation practitioners I know were former team doctors of professional teams, or powerlifting coaches who have practiced for more than ten years. After a few words with you, they will know whether your waist collapse during deadlifting is due to a weak core or insufficient ankle mobility. It is convenient to make an appointment and can follow you to the gym to adjust your movements on the spot, which is very practical for ordinary enthusiasts. But the threshold for this group of people is really ridiculously low. In the past, you could get a job by getting a fitness instructor certificate. Now you can get a "sports rehabilitation practitioner" certificate by just signing up for a training class worth several thousand yuan in half a month. Half of them can't even distinguish the typical symptoms of cruciate ligament rupture and meniscus injury.

I went to an industry salon last month, and the most heated issue was the issue of "standardization." A boss who had received financing slapped the table and said that if the industry wants to expand, it must have standardized packages, such as "12-time recovery card for knee injuries" and "universal plan for lumbar protrusion repair". Otherwise, consumers will not know how to choose, and they will not be able to replicate on a large scale. Some owners of small studios that have been open for five years directly criticized it, saying that standardization is irresponsible. Some people can go back to playing after spraining their knees three times, and some people need to practice for half a year before they can walk normally after an anterior cruciate ligament surgery. If you put all the problems into a template of 12 times, it is not called rehabilitation, it is just selling cards. Both sides are reasonable, but there is no conclusion until now.

Talking back to my own experience, I broke my shoulder while practicing CrossFit two years ago and was diagnosed with rotator cuff injury. The doctor said no surgery was needed and gave me three printed rehabilitation exercises to go back to practice. I felt that I had no motivation to practice, so I found a studio with a medical certificate and a fitness instructor certificate. The rehabilitation therapist first measured my joint mobility for the day, adjusted the weight of the movements according to my condition, and helped me change my bench press habit. I went back to normal training in three months, and spent less than 2,000, which was much more cost-effective than going to an Internet celebrity store.

A few days ago, I came across a blogger who has been a team doctor for eight years. He said that the rehabilitation studio he is opening does not apply for cards or promote sales. People who come in are evaluated for half an hour first, and those who can be accepted are accepted. If they are not accepted, they are directly sent to the hospital. Three years after opening, the business is still booming because of the reliance on old customers to attract new customers. In fact, to put it bluntly, the essence of this industry has never been a "big health trend", nor is it a high-end new consumption track. It is just to help those who love sports return to the sports field safely. Whether we can do this is the core of whether we can go far.