Sports injury prevention and first aid

For ordinary sports enthusiasts, 80% of sports injuries can be prevented through three actions: "targeted activation 3 minutes before exercise, not exceeding one's ability threshold by 10% during exercise, and stretching of the corresponding parts after exercise"； When encountering an acute injury, follow the "PRICE principle" for emergency treatment. If you are unsure of the severity, seek medical treatment as soon as possible. This is the most efficient response plan. There is no need to remember those fancy Internet celebrity methods.

I have been an off-field first aid volunteer in a local amateur running group and a folk basketball league for 6 years, and I have seen too many injuries that could have been completely avoided. Last week, a girl ran a half-marathon for the first time. In order to keep up with the pacer, she suffered a stress fracture in her fibula in the last 3 kilometers and was carried off the track. In fact, she had not even done a 15-kilometer long-distance training before the game, which was clearly beyond the boundaries of her abilities.

Nowadays, many people on the Internet advocate that the warm-up must be done for 15 minutes, and the whole body must be moved. In fact, there are two schools of thought in the industry: one is the traditional whole-body dynamic warm-up, which is more suitable for professional athletes to adjust their overall condition before the game, and the other is the athletes in recent years. Targeted activation, which is highly recommended by the animal medicine circle, is completely sufficient for ordinary people's daily exercise. Today, if you practice glutes and legs, you can do 3 minutes of clam pose, bodyweight squats, and ankle pumps. Today, if you play badminton, you can activate your rotator cuff, wrists, and ankles. It is much more effective than if you twist your neck and shoulders for 10 minutes. There used to be a young man who played a lot of basketball. Every time he warmed up, he would just turn his wrists and ankles twice, without activating his hamstring muscles. When he jumped up to grab a rebound and landed on the ground, he directly strained his leg. He had to rest for a whole month before he dared to touch the ball.

The most common mistake in exercise is to be deceived by the chicken soup of "breaking the limit". For example, if you usually bench press up to 60kg, and someone next to you is asking you to press 80kg, don't do it when your mind is hot. Even if you feel that you are in great shape today, just increase it to 66kg at most. This is the data obtained by exercise physiologists who tracked 3,000 amateur fitness enthusiasts for 3 years. If you exceed your own ability threshold by 10%, the probability of injury will directly increase by 4 times. Of course, there has always been a saying in cross-country running circles about "pain tolerance training," but that is for elite athletes who have more than three years of systematic training. If ordinary people feel pain in their joints and pulling muscles while running, don't hold on, stop immediately. Soreness is a normal fatigue response, and the pain is likely to be a sign of injury.

Even if prevention is in place, accidents will inevitably happen. At this time, the propriety of first aid is particularly important. Many people are still debating whether the PRICE principle or the POLICE principle is correct. In fact, there is no conflict between the two schools at all: within 72 hours after an acute injury occurs, priority should be given to the PRICE principle - protect the injured part from stress, rest immediately, apply ice, apply pressure bandage, and elevate the affected limb. Especially if you are not sure whether there is a fracture or ligament rupture, do not rub it randomly, do not spray safflower oil, and do not force yourself to walk. Last month, a young man had a sprained foot on the court. His teammates came up and massaged his foot to activate blood circulation. The boy was swollen like a steamed bun on the spot. It was originally just a mild ligament strain, but it took half a month for the swelling to subside. After 72 hours have passed, and x-rays have been taken to rule out structural damage, then the updated POLICE principle can be used to recover with a small amount of moderate weight-bearing. There is no need to lie down until there is no pain at all before moving.

To be honest, my biggest feeling after doing first aid for so long is that most people’s injuries are not due to bad luck at all, but because they are too hasty - either they want to lose 20 pounds in a month until they die, or they push the weight to save face in front of their friends. The purpose of exercise is to make oneself more comfortable, not to refresh the check-in data in the circle of friends, nor to compare speed and strength with others. If you are really injured, don't search Baidu and treat it on your own. You should take a film, take a film, find a rehabilitation practitioner, and try folk remedies on your own body. That is the worst thing you can do.