What should I prepare for mountain climbing? Learn to overcome 3 sports injuries first!

"You must climb Mount Yushan once in your life!" In recent years, standing on the highest point in Taiwan is considered a challenge that every Taiwanese must take. In order to achieve this goal, many people take advantage of their holidays to climb mountains to train their physical fitness and leg strength. However, experts remind that in addition to preparing suitable shoes, clothing and food for mountain climbing, don't forget to establish the correct concept of exercise and protect yourself from sports injuries. Only then can you easily become a mountaineering expert and not let pain extinguish your dream of climbing Mount Yushan or even challenging the 100 Great Mountains.

The trend of mountain climbing and challenging the 100 Great Peaks is growing in China. However, many people fail to take proper sports protection and experience muscle soreness and injuries during or after exercise. In severe cases, a long period of treatment and rehabilitation may be required, and they often go back and forth between home and the hospital.

Zhou Yahui, a physical therapist at the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Changhua Christian Hospital, said that the three most common sports injuries that people are prone to when hiking are plantar fasciitis, lower back pain, and thigh muscle strain. The following will explain the causes and improvement methods one by one, so that people who love climbing can stay away from pain and easily become mountaineering experts.

Plantar fasciitis

The plantar fascia is a large area of ​​connective fiber tissue on the sole of the foot. Its structure is similar to a fishing net. It stabilizes the foot and is the body's natural shock absorber. However, it can become inflamed due to factors such as the structure of each person's foot that affects the stress on the sole, excessive exercise, work style, and degeneration. The typical symptom of plantar fasciitis is severe pain on the inner side of the front edge of the heel when you take the first step out of bed in the morning or start walking after a long rest. However, the pain will be relieved after walking a few steps. If you continue to walk because it doesn't hurt, the pain will soon worsen again.

Plantar fasciitis is often confused with other conditions such as heel spurs, nerve compression in the heel, and Achilles tendon inflammation. It is recommended to confirm the diagnosis before treatment. Currently, conservative options for treating plantar fasciitis include instrument treatment, insole or taping support, exercise therapy, moderate rest and medication. The following exercise therapy movements can not only be used as rehabilitation after inflammation, but also as daily preventive health care.

1. Stretch the calf muscles: Maintain a lunge stance with your back knee straight and your foot flat on the floor. Use your body to move forward to increase the bend of your front foot's hip joint to stretch the calf muscles of your back foot. Hold for 10 seconds, then switch feet and repeat.

2. Exercise the sole muscles: Use a towel and let your toes grab the towel to arch the sole of the foot. Hold for 10 seconds and relax. This can increase the strength of small muscles and provide better stability.

3. Stretch the fascia: Sit down and use your fingers to pull your big toe upwards. You will feel a slight tightness on the inside of the sole of your foot. Hold for 10 seconds, then relax and repeat.

Lower back pain

When climbing, whether uphill or downhill, walking on gravel roads, dirt roads or wooden plank roads, each change of movement must rely on the stable strength of the central axis core muscles to provide support. Especially for people with heavier backpacks and equipment, the core muscles must be stronger to avoid back pain, muscle strain, or even more serious intervertebral disc disease or long-term lumbar degeneration and compression.

If you don't want to feel so much lower back pain that you can't even straighten your waist every time you finish climbing a mountain, physical therapist Zhou Yahui recommends that you do muscle relaxation exercises after climbing and exercise your core strength at other times, so that natural iron clothing can become your assistant in conquering the mountains.

1. Muscle relaxation exercise: Sit back with your hips and stretch your hands forward to relax your waist muscles. Hold for 10 seconds and repeat.

2. Core exercise: Maintain a supine position with your waist pressed against the bed. Use abdominal breathing. When you inhale, your belly will bulge out, and when you exhale, your belly will concave. Bend and straighten your knees alternately, and repeat.

[Thigh muscle strain]

The leg muscles must provide strong concentric and eccentric contractions during climbing, so climbers often experience cramps, muscle strains, and fatigue during the climbing process. To avoid such symptoms, it is recommended to do some stretching and relaxation exercises before and after climbing.

1. Stretching exercise for the front thigh muscles: Stand upright, grab one ankle with your hand, and hold your body upright for 10 seconds to relax the front thigh muscles.

2. Stretching exercise for the muscles on the back of the thigh: Lie flat on the bed, hug your thighs with both hands, straighten your knees, and feel a tightness on the back of the thighs. Hold for 10 seconds to relax the muscles on the back of the thighs.