Doctrine

Health Lecture | Training Injuries Are Mostly Caused by Imbalance

健康讲座丨训练伤多是失衡惹的祸

PLA Daily (解放军报) 23 August 2026

Summary

A PLA health education article instructs grassroots units to rebalance basic military training content by giving flexibility and agility equal standing alongside strength, speed, and endurance, arguing that compensatory mechanisms (代偿机制) — not overtraining volume — cause most knee, shoulder, and lumbar injuries in running, obstacle course, grenade-throwing, and low-crawl events. The article documents a recognized institutional problem: unit-level training plans systematically underweight the neural regulation module (神经调控模块) in favor of the physical power module, producing movement rigidity and injury-generating compensation patterns. This is standard PLA health education content; its value is as a baseline record of how the institution frames injury prevention for grassroots commanders, not as evidence of a training policy change.

Translation

The occurrence of injuries and illness in basic military training is often not the result of overtraining; in most cases it stems from a mismatch between officers and soldiers' own baseline physical fitness structure and the training subjects being undertaken. Different training subjects have varying requirements for the proportional balance of the five basic physical fitness components: strength, speed, endurance, flexibility, and agility. Once a shortfall exists in any one of these components, the body will rely on compensatory mechanisms (代偿机制) to complete movements, forcing muscles and joints that should not be bearing the training load to absorb excessive stress—and the hidden danger of training injuries is quietly planted.

In running training, soreness in the knee joint occurs relatively easily. Some comrades assume that knee soreness is caused by excessive frequency of running training, but the primary cause is actually insufficient stability of the individual's core muscle group and inadequate reserves of lower-limb control capacity. During running, it becomes difficult to maintain stable body posture, and the trunk sways excessively; the impact force of both feet striking the ground cannot be effectively absorbed by the muscles, and the external force acts directly on the cartilage and ligaments of the knee joint—chronic overuse injury accumulates over time.

In obstacle course training, shoulder and lower-back injuries are relatively common. Training-induced shoulder and lower-back injuries are mostly concentrated in two phases: scaling the high wall and low-crawling under the low-stake net. If reserves of lower-limb explosive power are insufficient, when scaling the high wall the upper-limb muscle groups are forced to bear the overwhelming majority of body weight, making rotator cuff muscle strain likely; if core strength and body flexibility are lacking, during the low-crawl under the low-stake net the lumbar and back muscles are held in a flexed posture for extended periods, and the risk of overuse injury increases substantially.

Grenade throwing and load-bearing carry training also produce shoulder and lower-back injuries, most of which are caused by non-standard movements. The complete force-generation chain (发力链条) for grenade throwing follows the sequence of: lower limbs pushing off the ground, rotating the waist to transfer force, extending the shoulder and swinging the arm, and snapping the wrist to release force—it does not rely purely on upper-limb strength. When officers and soldiers conduct grenade throwing training, if trunk rotational strength is weak or the range of motion of the shoulder joint is restricted, force transmission will be blocked midway, which in turn induces injuries such as lumbar torsion strain and rotator cuff tears. The habit of bending at the waist with straight legs during load-bearing carries increases the load on the lumbar spine and raises the probability of acute lower-back injury.

In low-posture crawling training, lumbar muscle strain and contusion of the soft tissue around the knee joint occur at a relatively high rate. When officers and soldiers maintain a low-posture movement position for extended periods, if core endurance is insufficient, the lumbar and back muscle groups will compensate under excessive load; if the movement for pushing off the ground is not standardized, the medial side of the knee joint repeatedly rubs against hard ground surfaces, making it easy to induce injury to the surface skin and deep soft tissue.

The occurrence of various types of training injuries has a certain relationship with imbalance in training content. The five basic physical fitness components can be divided into two major modules: strength, speed, and endurance fall under the physical power module (身体力量模块), which functions like equipment hardware, determining the efficiency of muscle work output and the upper limit of cardiopulmonary endurance; flexibility and agility fall under the neural regulation module (神经调控模块), equivalent to the body's control system, responsible for calibrating movement posture and correcting deviations in force application. Some units place excessive emphasis on the power module during training—for example, traditional physical fitness training such as running, jumping, and load-bearing is implemented thoroughly, continuously raising officers' and soldiers' physical capabilities—but flexibility development and coordination-agility content is often reduced to an ancillary component of warm-up and cool-down, which can produce problems such as rigid movement and compensatory force application.

The key to resolving this problem lies in placing flexibility and agility training in a position of equal importance to strength, speed, and endurance training, and incorporating them into routine training plans. Only by training this body control system (身体控制系统) of flexibility and agility well can the advantages of the physical hardware be fully realized, thereby effectively avoiding the risk of injury and illness.

It is recommended that grassroots units at all levels, in the course of organizing training, pay attention to the balance of training content, strengthen the concept of health protection, and promote the shift in injury and illness prevention and treatment from after-the-fact treatment to before-the-fact prevention and control, so as to reduce the incidence of injury and illness to the greatest extent possible.

Original Chinese

军事基础训练伤病的发生，往往不是训练过量所致，大多源于官兵自身基础体能结构与训练课目不适配。不同训练课目，对力量、速度、耐力、柔韧、灵敏五项基础体能配比需求各异。一旦某项体能存在短板，身体会依靠代偿机制完成动作，让本不该承担训练负荷的肌肉、关节被迫受力过载，训练伤病的隐患就会悄然埋下。跑步训练中，较容易发生膝关节酸痛。有的战友以为膝关节酸痛是跑步训练频次过高所致，其实主要原因在于个体核心肌群稳定性不够、下肢控制能力储备不足。跑步时难以维持身体姿态稳定，躯干晃动幅度过大；双脚落地冲击力无法依靠肌肉有效缓冲，外力直接作用于膝关节软骨与韧带，长期累积便会形成慢性劳损。障碍训练中，肩、腰损伤较为常见。训练引发的肩、腰损伤大多集中在攀越高墙、匍匐通过低桩网两个环节。如果下肢爆发力储备不足，攀越高墙时，上肢肌群被迫承载绝大部分体重，易造成肩袖肌群拉伤；如果核心力量、身体柔韧性欠缺，匍匐通过低桩网过程中，腰背肌肉长期保持屈曲姿态，劳损风险会大幅增加。手榴弹投掷、负重搬运训练也会带来肩、腰损伤，大多是不标准的动作所致。手榴弹投掷完整的发力链条是下肢蹬地、转腰传力、送肩挥臂、扣腕发力的传导顺序，并非单纯依靠上肢力量。官兵进行手榴弹投掷训练时，若躯干旋转力量薄弱、肩关节活动范围受限，会造成力量传导中途阻滞，进而诱发腰椎扭转拉伤、肩袖撕裂等损伤。负重搬运时习惯直腿弯腰，会增加腰椎负荷，增加急性腰部损伤的发生概率。低姿匍匐训练中，腰肌劳损、膝关节软组织挫伤较为高发。官兵长时间维持低姿行进姿态，如果核心耐力不足，腰背肌群会超负荷代偿；若蹬地发力动作不规范，膝关节内侧反复摩擦硬质地面，易引发表皮及深层软组织损伤。各类训练伤病的发生与训练内容失衡有一定关系。五项基础体能可以划分为两大模块，力量、速度、耐力归为身体力量模块，如同装备硬件，决定肌肉做功效率与心肺续航上限；柔韧、灵敏归为神经调控模块，相当于人体控制系统，负责校准动作姿态、修正发力偏差。有的单位训练时偏重力量模块，如跑跳、负重等传统体能训练落实充分，使得官兵躯体能力持续提升，但柔韧拓展、协调灵敏类内容常常简化为热身、放松的附属环节，就可能造成动作僵硬、发力代偿等问题。破解难题的关键，在于将柔韧、灵敏训练置于和力量、速度、耐力训练同等重要的位置，并将其纳入常态化训练计划。练好柔韧、灵敏这套身体控制系统，体能硬件优势才能充分发挥，从而有效规避伤病风险。建议各基层单位在组训过程中，注重训练内容的平衡，强化健康防护理念，推动伤病防治从事后治疗转向事前防控，最大程度降低伤病发生率。