Introduction: The research shows that most yoga students consider it a low-intensity and low-risk training, evidencing the lack of awareness related to prevention and safety methods, two causal factors of sports injuries. Added to this danger is the scarce literature scientifically reporting the prevention methods for college students practicing this activity. Objective: Study the prevention of injuries during yoga practice by college students, exploring the risk management of this activity. Methods: Patients admitted to a hospital, yoga practitioners, were volunteers in a questionnaire to raise the main injuries and their causes. Data such as time of practice, frequency, and recurrence of injuries were also cataloged. A preventive protocol was elaborated based on the data of the collected accidents and tested with another 50 volunteers divided equally into control and experimental groups. The control group received no interventions. The experimental group added 10 minutes of warm-up and stretching based on the elaborated protocol. Interventions were three times weekly for eight weeks. Risk mitigation data and FMS tests were collected and compared. Results: The total FMS test score in the experimental group increased from 12.5 to 16.2, with a significant impact. The total FMS test score of college students in the control group before the experiment was 12.5 to 14.3. Conclusion: Adding warm-up exercises combined with preparation activities by stretching and basic yoga movements before the start of activities can help athletes' physical condition and reduce the occurrence of sports injuries. Level of evidence II; Therapeutic studies - investigation of treatment outcomes.
The developed modern life has brought some side effects to college students. For example, long-term sitting will lead to stiffness of muscles or joints, which is not conducive to the healthy growth of college students. Yoga can balance body and mind and regulate body posture.1 Since it was introduced into China, it has been gradually welcomed by the people. It has been combined with Chinese traditional sports in many years of development, and gradually derived a yoga movement suitable for Chinese people.2 These sports methods are also popular in universities, and many college students, especially college girls, will participate. The increasing popularity of yoga has led many universities to introduce yoga as an elective course of physical education.3 However, yoga also has some problems. Research shows that most yoga learners regard yoga as a low-intensity and low-risk exercise training, so they lack the awareness of safety prevention.4 Even beginners dare to try some complicated movements when doing yoga, which is easy to cause sports injuries. The research results show that many college students have the problem of yoga sports injuries, including but not limited to joint sprains, muscle strains and joint bruises.5 These sports injuries affect the health of college students and discourage their enthusiasm for sports. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the sports risk management in the process of college students' yoga sports according to the actual situation of college students, combined with sports injury prevention strategies.6
In order to clarify the necessity of research and better collect the needs of risk management in yoga, the first part of the article adopts the interview method and questionnaire survey method. The study and all the participants were reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Nanjing University of Science and Technology ZiJin College (NO.21N-JUST-ZJ076). First of all, interview and exchange with the yoga course instructor in the gym around a college yoga club and the PE teacher who teaches yoga courses in the school, and ask the college students about their willingness to do yoga, the frequency of exercise, the main types of learning and the types of sports injuries, so as to have a more systematic understanding of the research on efficient yoga. Then, using the method of questionnaire survey, we distributed a questionnaire to the people who had yoga injuries in a university hospital and invited them to answer it. The main contents include the frequency of yoga exercises, the main types of learning and the specific conditions of sports injuries. A total of 70 questionnaires were distributed to obtain 68 questionnaires, including 66 valid ones. Excel software was used to collate and analyze the data and draw relevant pictures for the convenience of later research.
Research object: In the previous research, we visited college yoga clubs, yoga classes in surrounding gyms and yoga courses in schools. During the interview, we communicated with students from these yoga loving clubs, and collected some students who love yoga, but have poor yoga foundation and are prone to sports injuries. We collected volunteers from them. Totally 50 athletes were collected and divided into the experimental group and the control group according to the form of random sampling. Each group had 25 athletes. The basic sports conditions, height and weight and other factors were almost the same, thus reducing the interference of unrelated variables to the experiment and ensuring the strictness of the experimental results.
Experiment method: The article adopts the method of controlled experiment. The control group does not intervene according to the existing yoga training method. The experimental group adds 10 minutes of warm-up and stretching training on the basis of the existing yoga training. Its content is to add some yoga actions on the basis of the traditional warm-up to make it more suitable for the characteristics of sports. The whole experiment lasted for 8 weeks, and yoga training was carried out three times a week. Except for different warm-up preparation activities, the other yoga training movements and yoga training load duration were almost the same between the experimental group and the control group, so as to avoid interference from unrelated factors.
Data test: Zero indicates that the specified action cannot be completed completely; one point indicates that some of the prescribed actions can be completed, but there are still many non-standard or inconsistent actions; a score of two indicates that the relevant actions can be basically completed, but there are some non-standard actions; three points indicate that the specified test action can be completed smoothly and correctly, meeting the action standard of the whole test process. Before and after the experiment, FMS tests were conducted on the experimental group and the control group respectively, and the actions were scored according to the actual test situation of volunteers, and the data were collated.
From the survey, it can be seen that current college students have a high enthusiasm for yoga, and the reasons are also obvious. Yoga can adjust body posture well, and has the effect of weight loss and fitness. Compared with running and other sports, yoga has a relatively small amount of exercise, and there is no panting phenomenon during the exercise. Therefore, it is popular with many college students who do not want to exercise in a large scale; secondly, the impact of COVID-19 has kept schools closed or isolated from students at home from time to time. In order to prevent crowds from gathering, many stadiums are closed, which compresses students' sports space. Yoga has little demand for venues, and often only needs a yoga mat. Therefore, many students have signed up for yoga training classes to learn some introductory and basic knowledge. It is convenient for home exercise when isolation occurs, so college yoga is very popular among college students.
As shown in Figure 1, the current frequency of college students' yoga exercise is 3 to 4 times a week, accounting for 46.97%, followed by 1 to 2 times a week, accounting for 33.33%. This corresponds to the current curriculum arrangement and life needs of college students. Many college students have general education courses or lectures in the evening, unable to participate every day, and actively carry out yoga practice in their spare time. To maintain a relatively good exercise frequency, some college students who do not have heavy schoolwork or have a certain pursuit of weight loss and shaping will choose to increase the exercise frequency to achieve better results.
| 3–4 times per week | 46.97% |
| 1–2 times per week | 33.33% |
| 5–6 times per week | 12.12% |
| More than 7 times per week | 7.58% |
As shown in Figure 2, the current types of college students' yoga activities are varied. Different yoga teachers and studios have different teaching habits and different teaching focuses. From the figure, it can be seen that the highest proportion is yoga posture teaching, accounting for 62.12%, while the rest is breathing method teaching, meditation teaching, etc., which each account for a lower proportion. This shows that what is popular among college students at present is the stretching and relaxing functions of yoga on the body. There are also some college students who prefer more complex yoga movements due to the influence of social-media and official accounts, so movement-based teaching has become the main type of current learning, and this kind of teaching also has a certain impact on sports injuries.
| Teaching of postures | 62.12% |
| Breathing method teaching | 16.67% |
| Meditation teaching | 12.12% |
| Teaching in theory | 9.09% |
As shown in Figure 3, the main types of sports injuries in the process of yoga practice among college students can be seen. It is clear from Figure 3 that yoga sports injuries are related to certain complex yoga movements. For example, overload stretching easily causes muscle strain, which is also the most frequent injury, accounting for 53.03%. Secondly, 22.73% of participants suffer from joint pain and popping sounds, which is also related to overloaded exercise. College students who have not exercised for a long time and who rush into complicated yoga movements will easily overload their muscles and joints. In the short term, this easily leads to muscle strain and joint damage; over the long term, overload causes wear and tear of the joints.
| Pull a muscle | 53.03% |
| Joints are painful and rattling | 22.73% |
| Sprain of joint | 16.67% |
| Wear of joints | 4.55% |
| Contusion and tear | 3.03% |
In view of the various risks in current college students' yoga, we chose warm-up stretching training as a strategy to prevent sports injuries and tested the FMS results.
Table 1 shows the test results of college students in the experimental group before and after the intervention. It can be seen that the total score increased from (12.510 ± 2.201) to (16.282 ± 1.448), a very significant change. This shows that thorough stretching before yoga training can greatly relax joints and muscles, help muscles adapt to the current changes, and prevent sports injuries caused by excessive load during yoga.
| Project | Before experiment | After experiment | t value | P value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total score | 12.510±2.201 | 16.282±1.448 | -17.8385 | 0.0000 |
| Squat | 1.926±0.738 | 2.340±0.464 | -4.8452 | 0.0000 |
| Hurdle step | 1.464±0.672 | 2.536±0.501 | -13.0438 | 0.0000 |
| Front and back split squat | 1.407±0.557 | 2.346±0.481 | -12.4462 | 0.0000 |
| Shoulder flexibility | 1.916±0.708 | 2.431±0.499 | -5.8049 | 0.0000 |
| Active straight knee lifting | 2.123±0.678 | 2.764±0.458 | -6.4268 | 0.0000 |
| Torso stability push up | 1.602±0.533 | 1.935±0.414 | -3.6694 | 0.0010 |
| Rotational stability | 1.926±0.219 | 2.025±0.689 | -1.4285 | 0.1596 |
| Project | Before experiment | After experiment | t value | P value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total score | 12.579±2.044 | 14.307±1.225 | -5.7201 | 0.0000 |
| Squat | 1.955±0.688 | 2.118±0.622 | -2.3772 | 0.0231 |
| Hurdle step | 1.376±0.632 | 2.017±0.865 | -4.2668 | 0.0000 |
| Front and back split squat | 1.436±0.557 | 1.765±0.732 | -2.9035 | 0.0050 |
| Shoulder flexibility | 1.985±0.688 | 2.289±0.589 | -2.8689 | 0.0059 |
| Active straight knee lifting | 2.044±0.599 | 2.521±0.693 | -4.9180 | 0.0000 |
| Torso stability push up | 1.651±0.514 | 1.734±0.504 | -1.4357 | 0.1614 |
| Rotational stability | 1.906±0.259 | 1.975±0.223 | -0.9976 | 0.3222 |
Through the current work experience of yoga teaching in colleges and universities, we can see that students have the following problems in the process of yoga exercise:
1. Lack of systematic teaching. With the development of various social-media networks, yoga, as an activity that is easily pursued by young people, has occupied an important position on these platforms. Many fitness bloggers and yoga coaches have set up social-media accounts and released teaching videos of yoga. These teaching videos are more suitable for yoga lovers with a certain foundation to train and teach; they are not suitable for beginners without a sports foundation. At present, however, many beginners do not have a good understanding of yoga. They think it is fine to practice with videos and tutorials alone. This makes many beginners lack the necessary common sense and systematic teaching of yoga. They often only learn yoga movements and do not have a thorough grasp of its underlying principles. When they perform complex movements, they are prone to strain, sprain, and other problems.
2. The risk of yoga is not well understood. Many students' perception of sports injuries still stays with fierce sports such as basketball and football, and they think that yoga will not cause sports injuries to any significant degree. Therefore, when conducting yoga training, they omit warm-up exercises and directly start complex training. Many yoga teachers do not pay enough attention to preparation activities. Even if students are perfunctory in the preparation activities, teachers often do not correct this, but proceed directly with yoga training, which leaves many students without the necessary warm-up, with muscles and joints that have not stretched, making it easy to sustain strains, sprains, and other sports injuries due to complex movements in the course of yoga practice.
In view of the various situations in current college students' yoga, the author proposes the following sports risk management measures:
First, we should strengthen the dissemination of yoga knowledge. College students choose yoga as a form of exercise, which has a good effect on improving their own physique. However, the current problem of insufficient understanding of yoga is also a main cause of sports injuries. Therefore, college teachers should strengthen the dissemination of theoretical knowledge of yoga, such as its biological basis, its origin and development, and the precautions to be observed in practice, through online video courses or lectures aimed at students' social-media followers and yoga communities, so that students can gain a scientific and systematic understanding of the advantages and precautions of yoga, and reduce the sports injuries caused by unsupervised practice.
Second, it is necessary to conduct standardized oversight of the yoga clubs in the school and the surrounding yoga gyms and studios. The yoga clubs in the school can employ PE teachers for guidance, or employ PE students with relevant certificates to provide instruction, standardize yoga teaching, and prevent sports injuries caused by unsupervised training. As for yoga institutions outside the school, cooperation with the market supervision department is warranted. Professional yoga teachers should check the surrounding yoga institutions, review the sports environment and teachers' qualifications, and determine a "white list" of yoga institutions around the school, so as to give students standardized guidance when choosing yoga institutions and prevent sports injuries caused to students by non-professional yoga institutions.
Yoga seems calm, with little risk and a limited range of exercise, but it can actually consume a significant number of calories, which has a good effect on weight loss and fitness shaping. It can also improve the joint and muscle status of sedentary college students, and it has very low requirements for sports venues, which is why it is popular on college campuses. However, the hidden sports risks of yoga are not well recognized, which can easily cause damage to the health of college students. Therefore, this paper puts forward the problems of college students' yoga practice through investigation and research, and discusses the impact of pre-exercise warm-up preparation activities on the safety risks of yoga through a controlled experiment. The research results show that, before starting exercise, adding yoga warm-up exercises that combine stretching preparation activities and simple yoga movements can well regulate the physical condition of athletes and reduce the occurrence of sports injuries, and is therefore worth promoting.