What are the classifications and principles of sports injury prevention?

At present, the mainstream classification of injury prevention in the field of sports rehabilitation is divided into three-level prevention systems based on intervention timing. The core principles revolve around several core directions: project adaptability preparation, reasonable load control, movement pattern calibration, and subsequent recovery intervention. Different groups of people and different projects will have targeted adjustments. There is no unified standard that is universally applicable.

Speaking of which, this third-level prevention is actually quite easy to understand. It is like putting a three-layer protective cover on the body. The outermost level of primary prevention is for all healthy sports people who are not injured. To put it bluntly, it means to cut off the source of risk when there is no accident. I evaluated a community running group a while ago and found that eight out of a dozen runners had insufficient hip abductor strength and their knees buckled in during normal running. I didn’t realize it myself. After leading them to practice clam pose and side walking for a month, most of them said that the tightness in their knees after running was gone. This is the role of primary prevention. Doing more movement pattern screening and muscle balance adjustment is much less worrying than recovering after injury. The middle layer of secondary prevention is for people who already have risk signs. For example, your knees have snapped when squatting, or a certain muscle is always sore for several days after exercise. At this time, you must adjust your exercise plan in time and wear protective gear if necessary. Don't wait for real injuries such as ligament tears and tendonitis to be dealt with. The innermost level of tertiary prevention is the protection that people who have been injured need to do during the recovery stage. For example, balance training should be added during the recovery period after sprained foot to avoid the sequelae of habitual sprained foot and to prevent secondary injuries caused by exercise before the injury is fully healed. Of course, there are now different classification ideas in the academic community. Many scholars have proposed that the types of injuries should be divided into acute injury prevention and chronic strain prevention. The former focuses more on immediate protection during sports, such as wearing protective gear and avoiding illegal movements in confrontational events. The latter focuses more on long-term adjustment of exercise habits. This classification method is particularly well accepted among amateur fitness people. After all, most ordinary people's injuries are not acute injuries caused by collisions, but are chronic strains accumulated.

After talking about the classification, let’s talk about the principles. In fact, these principles are based on the experience accumulated from thousands of injury cases, and there is nothing false. The most easily overlooked thing is the adaptability of the preparatory activities. Many people think that warm-up is just about swinging your arms and kicking your legs. Last week, a young man in our gym played badminton. He jumped up and smashed, directly stretching his Achilles tendon. He took a break for two months. Warming up is really not a process. You have to follow the event you want to do. When playing basketball, run two more roundabouts and move the ankle and shoulder joints. When training for strength, do two sets of light weights to activate the target muscle groups. It works better than anything else. Also, don’t blindly compare loads with others. Many people compete with others for deadlift weight when they first start working out. When they first start running, they rush to 5 points. The body cannot bear it at all. I have met a young girl who just applied for a card. She went to the gym for two hours every day in the first week. On the third day, she strained her rotator cuff and needed to rest for almost a month. Of course, there is also a small controversy here. Professional athletes sometimes deliberately overload to break through the bottleneck. That is because there are team doctors and rehabilitation specialists behind them to watch the whole process and adjust the plan at any time. Ordinary enthusiasts do not have this condition, so don’t imitate it blindly. In addition, the action pattern is always more important than the data. If you accumulate too many wrong actions, something will definitely happen. There was a fitness enthusiast who had been doing bodybuilding for three years. He kept bending down to lift heavy weights, and finally suffered a herniated disc and lay there for three months. Originally, exercise is for good health, and it is not a mistake to pretend to be injured just to post on friends. Finally, don’t treat recovery as laziness. Many people practice pivoting every day. Their muscles become tight and flexible for a long time, and they can be injured if they pull even slightly. Taking one or two days a week to do yoga or swimming to actively recover is much more profitable than practicing hard.

In fact, after all, no matter how the classification is adjusted or the principles are stated, the most important thing is to pay attention to your body's signals. Don't push yourself just to clock in and get data. Exercise is originally about having fun, but when you get injured, you put the cart before the horse.