What methods can be used to prevent sports injuries

In fact, "preventive treatment" in the field of sports medicine is originally the core link of injury prevention and control. The essence is to advance the intervention node before the injury occurs. The core logic is to adjust in advance the three core risk points of the individual's weak functions, wrong action patterns, and unreasonable exercise load. It is not at all "just tossing around when there is no illness" as everyone thinks.

Last week I met a young man who was preparing to run his first half-marathon. When he came here, he said that the outside of his knees became tight every time he ran 5 kilometers. He stopped and rubbed them for two minutes without any pain. He originally came here to ask what kind of knee pads to buy. An evaluation found that his hip abduction strength was nearly 40% weaker than that of runners of the same level, and his knees were obviously buckled when he landed. If he increased his running volume by 20% per week according to his original plan, he would definitely suffer from iliotibial band friction syndrome, commonly known as runner's knee, for up to a month and a half. They didn’t prescribe him any medicine or recommend expensive protective gear. They just asked him to add 10 minutes of hip activation before each run, do 3 sets of 15 side steps, use a foam roller to roll the outside of his thighs for 3 minutes after running, and do 20 clam poses at home every day to practice hip abduction. Two weeks later, he came back to report that, let alone tightness, he didn’t feel any discomfort after running 12 kilometers last week. This is the most typical preventive treatment effect.

When it comes to this, some people will definitely think, "I just move casually, why should I bother with this?" Indeed, there is a lot of controversy about preventive treatment. One group believes that warming up before exercise and stretching after exercise is enough, and there is no need for additional evaluation and intervention. The other group believes that as long as you exercise regularly, preventive adjustments must be made regularly. In fact, both statements are reasonable. If you just take a walk two or three times a week, do low-intensity yoga for half an hour at home, and have no old injuries, be careful not to suddenly increase your exercise intensity. Ordinary warm-up stretching can indeed prevent more than 90% of minor injuries. But if you have clear training goals, such as preparing to run a marathon, going to the gym three or four times a week to lift irons, or if you have old injuries to your waist, knees, or ankles, then it is best to conduct regular functional assessments, just like doing an annual inspection of your car before driving a long distance. It is much easier to deal with any loose screws or excessive tire wear than to have it towed for repairs if it breaks down halfway.

In addition to common functional training and movement correction, many professional teams now also use myotropic tape taping and small acupuncture to release tense tendons and functional loosening of joints for preventive intervention, all of which have been clinically proven to be effective. Oh, and let me mention a common misunderstanding. Many people think that prevention is to wear protective gear. In fact, protective gear is the last step of the solution. If your own force generation mode is not correct, wearing thick knee pads will only transfer the pressure to the hip and ankle joints, but it will easily bury the risk of injury in other parts.

I have been doing sports rehabilitation for almost 6 years, and I have encountered too many patients who were in so much pain that they could not walk normally. They stopped training for at least a month or two, and many had to undergo surgery, which delayed their exercise plan. After all, it is really better to spend some time in advance to make preventive adjustments, which is much more cost-effective.