What are the methods to prevent sports injuries?

In fact, to put it bluntly, there are not so many bells and whistles about sports injury prevention. The core is to adapt to your own ability and to control the details covering the entire cycle of exercise. It is really not something that can be solved once and for all by buying expensive protective gear and doing enough warm-up.

When I was preparing for the half-marathon last year, I wore a full set of professional protective gear. I warmed up for 20 minutes before the race and didn't even activate the deep hip muscles. However, I still had patellar pain and quit the race after 17 kilometers. I went to the rehabilitation department and found out that he usually only runs more than 70 per month. Two weeks before the race, he directly ran up to 120 in order to achieve a good result. His lower limb muscle endurance could not keep up. When running, his knees compensated too much.

Nowadays, the sports circle is still very noisy. Should I do static stretching or dynamic activation before exercise? Old-school fitness enthusiasts always say that stretching before a game makes you more flexible. Many young rehabilitation practitioners also say that static stretching will reduce muscle excitability and make you more prone to injury. In fact, there is no standard answer to this matter. It depends on what you practice. If you go to yin yoga, it is perfectly fine to sit and stretch your fascia for a few minutes before class. If you are going to play 3v3 basketball and squat for 5 minutes on the back of your thighs before the game, you may get cramps as soon as you take off. A young man stepped on this pit during our community basketball game last week, and it took him a long time to recover.

The more expensive and protective the equipment, the better. When I first started running, I heard people say that supportive running shoes protect the knees. I spent more than a thousand dollars to buy a pair of top-level support models. I have normal arches, but I developed plantar fasciitis after wearing them three times. When I went to do gait analysis, the rehabilitation therapist laughed and said that your arch support is enough. Wearing supportive shoes is equivalent to giving you a high arch. It’s strange that it doesn’t hurt. You see, choosing the wrong equipment can easily lead to injuries.

Some people will argue, saying that I never prepare anything for sports, and I have never been injured. I don’t refute this. If you just walk for 20 minutes after meals every day, and the intensity is not much different from daily walking, then you really don’t need to go through so many procedures. But if you are playing a confrontational and explosive event, or you want to compete for sports performance, then these details are ways to help you minimize the probability of injury. After all, if you are really injured and rest for two or three months, the results of previous training will be almost lost, and the gain is not worth the loss.

In fact, the muscles and joints are like the family car you usually drive. You don't drive it at ordinary times. When you start it, you slam on the accelerator and drive at high speeds. After driving, you just turn off the engine and lock the car and leave it there. No matter how good the car is, it is easy to break down. Check your condition regularly, gradually increase the dosage, and relax your muscles after exercise. It is more effective than any other protection. In the past two years when I practiced CrossFit, I was in a hurry to hit the weight. I sprained my ankle and strained my shoulder once. Now every time I enter the gym, I check my condition for the day. I don’t touch heavy weights after staying up late the day before. If my muscles are a little sore, I do ten more minutes to activate them. I don’t insist on weight competition with others. I haven’t had any injuries in almost a year, and they are much more useful than the wrist and ankle braces I bought for 300 or 400 yuan before.