What do sports injury prevention measures include?

The core actually covers the pre-preparation, process control and subsequent recovery of the whole cycle of exercise. It is not something that can be solved by stretching two minutes in advance as everyone thinks. I have been playing amateur basketball and running groups for almost 8 years. More than 90% of the injuries I have seen, large and small, are caused by at least two or three preventive links.

Not long ago, a young girl born in the 2000s who just joined our running group wanted to run a half marathon. She followed the old team members and ran 10 kilometers. She shook her arms and legs casually during the warm-up. She was still wearing the soft-soled sneakers she usually wears when going out on the street. After running, her knees hurt for half a month. When she went to get an MRI, it was patellar tendinitis. You see, she didn’t warm up correctly, didn’t choose the right equipment, and didn’t adapt the load. She hit all three pitfalls. It’s hard not to get hurt.

To be honest, many people have too little understanding of warm-up and think that just move until you sweat. In fact, it has to match the event you are going to do. For example, if you want to play badminton, leg pressure alone is useless. You have to do a few sets of shoulder external rotation and heel raises in advance to activate small muscle groups such as the rotator cuff and ankle joints that are easily ignored. Last week, there was a young man in our gym who jumped up to hit the ball. His rotator cuff was directly strained and it was difficult to lift his arms. He suffered a loss because he did not do special activation. Needless to say about equipment, don’t wear canvas shoes to play basketball or slippers to aerobics. The torsion resistance and support of the shoes are like putting a protective shell on the foot. The shell is not hard enough. When the center of gravity is slightly tilted when landing, it is easy to sprain the foot. Last month, a young man who wore sneakers to play center suffered an avulsion fracture immediately after landing. It took three months of rest and it still hasn’t fully recovered.

When it comes to exercising, don’t feel like you’re ready to go into the safe. Whether the movement pattern is correct is much more important than whether you have practiced hard enough. I once saw a guy in the gym doing squats. His waist collapsed like a bow in order to bear the weight, and his knees buckled inward. After less than a week of training, his waist protruded and it was difficult to even tie his shoelaces. Here is another point that has been controversial in the industry: Should I carry it if it hurts during exercise? One group is a supporter of "no pain, no gain". They believe that muscle soreness is a signal to break through the limit, and you have to grit your teeth and push through to gain strength. ； The other group believes that as soon as pain occurs, you must stop immediately to avoid irreversible damage. The compromise statement given by the team doctor we often work with is: If it is a dull pain due to muscle soreness, it is a normal fatigue reaction and you can continue. ； But if there is a sharp pain in the joints or tendons, or a feeling of being stuck or stuck, you must stop immediately. If you hold on for a long time, it is most likely that the ligaments and cartilage have worn out. It will take at least several months to maintain it, and the gain is not worth the loss. Also, don’t force yourself to exercise due to fatigue. I didn’t touch a ball for 3 months due to the epidemic last year. I played for two hours in the first game after the lockdown was lifted. My legs became so weak that I couldn’t control them anymore. I twisted my foot when I landed. I rested for more than a month. I didn’t realize that my muscle strength had been lost. If I continued to build at the same strength as before, something would definitely go wrong.

Many people think that they can just slump on the sofa after practice. In fact, subsequent recovery is also a key part of preventing injury. The little girl I mentioned earlier who suffered from patellar tendinitis also had a bad habit of never stretching after running. Her iliotibial band was as tight as a fully stretched bowstring. She kept grinding her patella while running, and pain would come sooner or later. There are also things that people tend to ignore: diet and sleep. In order to quickly lose body fat, I had a friend who ate calories every day that could not even reach his basal metabolic rate. He still insisted on dancing for an hour every day. Last month, his leg gave out when he was jumping. It was found that he had an electrolyte imbalance. His muscles simply did not have enough energy to maintain the stability of his movements. It would be strange if he did not get injured.

To put it bluntly, sports injury prevention is actually about not fighting your body, sensing its signals, and stepping firmly every step of the way. This is more effective than any other folk remedy.