5 Ways To Reduce Your Risk of a Running Injury
With covid lockdowns over the past couple of years and the closure of gyms and the shutdown of most community based sports or activities, there has been a big spike in people taking up running or getting back into a running routine.
Running is a fantastic exercise for so many reasons, not limited to but including improvements in cardiovascular fitness, weight loss, mental health and bone and joint health. The benefits of running far outweigh any of the risk of injury, however, as with any activity there is the chance of developing pain or injury. While we can’t ‘bulletproof’ anything to completely avoid the risk of this happening, there are many steps we can take to ensure we greatly reduce the risk of injury or pain occurring.
Some of the most common running related injuries I see personally include:
- ITB Pain (pain on the outside of the knee) – sometimes referred to as runners knee.
- Patella Femoral Pain Syndrome (fancy name for knee cap pain)
- Shin Splints (aka medial tibial stress syndrome)
- Achilles tendinopathy (tendonitis etc)
- Plantar Fasciitis (Heel and arch of the foot pain)
All these conditions above are normally painful conditions that build up over time – meaning there is no specific fall or mechanism to define when the pain has come about (ie ankle sprain from a direct fall). As these are injuries that build up over time, there are many ways we can try to mitigate the risk. Below are my 5 top tips for reducing the risk of injury when running but they could also be transferred to other endurance activities such as hiking, swimming and cycling.
1. Training loads – Sharp increases are likely to put stress on your body that it is not ready or prepared for. This increase in stress can lead to tissue damage or sensitivity over time, which will present as pain when it exceeds a threshold. So when starting out, do not do too much too soon. If completely new to running, the couch to 5k app is great. If experienced and starting back out, reduce your first few runs and build up again gradually, avoid the temptation to get back into your previous long run distance.
2. Recovery – Adequate recovery is vital to reducing the risk of injury. If we aren’t recovering well – such as getting 7-8 hrs of sleep, eating a well balanced diet, resting between sessions etc. then the stress on the body will again most likely exceed the capacity and can lead to injury. Listen to your body.
3. Strength Training – This is something that gets neglected a lot in runners. For most runners, anything other than running is boring! I totally get it…. but there is a huge benefit in adding some leg strength work into your routine for injury prevention but also for improving your speed. So if you aren’t doing it to stay pain free, do it to knock a few seconds of your split pace.
4. Warm up – This can be as simple as either walking before running or a slow jog before you get into your planned run pace. This will trump any other fancy exercises you may have been told to do in the past as nothing is better for warming up than completing the task you are about to do at a lower intensity. That doesn’t mean you need to throw out your crab walks or your glute bridges – just add in more running specific motions like A skips, high knees, ankle kicks etc and again, a lower intensity version of what you are about to do.
5. Stay hydrated – Coming on to the warmer months if you are not hydrated your muscles will not have the nutrients to work efficiently and at best risk cramps and worse case potentially muscle/tendon tears etc. Water is all you need for most of us with a well balanced diet. Unless you are running for more than 2 hours, in which case you will most likely need some extra electrolytes or even food for those crazy ultra marathon runners and the like.
This is by no means an exhaustive list but covers many of the training errors that I see in my patients when presenting with some of the above conditions. If you have pain or injury when running, please have it assessed by a health practitioner.