Research Reviewed: The “SHRed Injuries Basketball” Neuromuscular Training Warm-up Program Reduces Ankle and Knee Injury Rates by 36% in Youth Basketball. Emery et al. JOSPT January 2022
Basketball puts significant stress on the knees and ankle – in multiple directions, movements, and movement planes. This leads to a high prevalence of knee and ankle injuries. A potential way to help reduce these injuries is through an effective and appropriate warm-up.
The researchers in this article investigated a warm-up program termed the “SHRed” warm-up routine which is a roughly 10 minute neuromuscular focused routine that involves strength, coordination, balance, aerobics, and agility. For a full rundown on it, watch this video:
The research looked at 307 high school basketball players over the course of two seasons. In season one, the players were given a standard warm-up program and in season two, they were given the SHRed program.
From season one to season two, the implementation of the new program – both for those players supervised AND unsupervised – was associated with 36% lower rate of ankle and knee injuries.
The practical takeaway here is quite clear – NMT warm-ups are effective and can be quickly used to help reduce injury risk in the lower body. These warm-ups more specifically target the movements and mechanisms involved in basketball and thus prepare the athlete better to play.
Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT, (@3cbperformance) is a physiotherapist, movement expert, strength and conditioning/fitness coach, sports scientist and mindfulness coach. He runs the LA and online based physiotherapy and athletic performance clinic 3CB Performance and you can subscribe to his Youtube channel (which posts a variety of sports injury, performance, and fitness related content).