Avoiding running injuries:
Here at Limitless Physiotherapy and Performance, we see lots of people who have been injured when running and have aided their recovery to thoughtless, fearless and painless movement. We treat a variety of runners, whether that be runners who enjoy a light jog after work, to runners who are training for half and full marathon.
It is estimated that between 40-50% of people who run experience at least one injury each year.
Running is described as being an exercise that can strengthen the limbs, develop the lungs and promote circulation of blood. This suggests it can have huge benefits. Therefore, by avoiding running injuries, you are likely to experience these benefits for a long duration of time, which can prevent osteoporosis, respiratory diseases and much more.
The aim of this blog is to give you some top tips on the best way to avoid injuries when running.
Shoes:
Research has suggested that it is important to have suitable running shoes in order to avoid any type of injury.
By having suitable running shoes, it means they will be able to absorb the force put through the leg when the foot and floor come into contact and therefore, not as much pressure will be relayed into the ankle joint, knee joint or hip joint.
Suitable shoes for regular runners include a heel-to-toe drop shoe of around 10mm. Furthermore, suitable shoes for for occasional runners include flatter trainers with no heel-to-toe-drop.
It is also recommended that your shoes are renewed regularly, based on how many Kilometres they have run (480km), rather than how worn they look.
Strength training:
When running, muscles are constantly having to contract whilst shortening and lengthening. Therefore, it is important to prepare them for this, so strengthening them are key. The main muscles that are used when running are the calves (soleus and gastrocnemius), quads (vastus intermedius, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis and rectus Femoris), hamstrings (bicep Femoris, semitendinosus, semimembranosus), glutes (glute maximus, glute medius, glute minimus) and the core muscles.
Exercises that help strengthen the calves, quads, hamstrings and glutes include squats and lunges. Exercises that help strengthen the core include bird dogs, dead bugs and planks.
Running surfaces:
While there is not much evidence suggesting running on hard surfaces compared to soft surfaces increase injury risk, it is suggested that a sudden change from a soft surface (grass) to a hard surface (road) does increase the risk of injury.
One of the most common mistakes which lead to injury is increasing distance/speed too soon. It is estimated that 60% of running injuries was due to this.
Understandably, sometimes these things cannot be helped. Therefore it is important to rebuild running tolerance if changing to a hard surface. For example if you have been running 5km in 30 minutes on grass and switch to road, a way you can manage tolerance is to start off by running 2.5km and then build it back up to 5km in the next few weeks.
Steady overload:
Therefore, a steady overload is vital to help preventing injuries when running. Similar to changing surface, you need to be able to gradually build up your running tolerance.
For example, if you are training for a 10km run/race, you could simply start by running 1km. If this feels okay, on the next run, you could aim for a 1.5km run. Continue doing this until you reach 10km.
All these tips should be done in conjunction with each other, to help give you the best possible chance of preventing injuries when running.
If you are unfortunate enough to get injured when running, don’t suffer in silence and don’t try to run through it.
Come and book an appointment with us at Limitless!
We will go through a thorough assessment and not only give you a diagnosis of WHAT the problem is, but WHY you are experiencing it as well. This will then lead to hands on treatment if indicated and a personalised exercise program to get you back on track (excuse the pun).
https://journals.lww.com/acsm-csmr/Fulltext/2010/05000/Prevention_of_Running_Injuries.00014.aspx
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2383477/pdf/canfamphys00265-0073.pdf