With only a week to go until the Fleet Half Marathon, you hopefully have completed the mileage required for the distance and are looking forward to the day. If you have found that during or after your training runs you experience ongoing aches and pains, then below are details of the most common running injuries and what can be done to treat and/or prevent them:
Do you dream of being that runner where every step of every mile is 100% pain free? No aches, no twinges or niggles, no lingering soreness from yesterday’s session. Well, you are not alone; research shows that as many as 79% of runners get injured at least once during the year which is nearly 8 out of every 10 runners you see have been or will be injured sometime that year.
Think of running pains in terms of a spectrum. At one end you have severe, full-blown injuries, which will be the 'red zone', which includes stress fractures that require time off. The other end, where you're in top form, is the green zone. Mild, transient aches that bug you one day and disappear the next sit closer to the green end. Unfortunately, many runners get stuck in the middle, in the not-quite-injured but not-quite-healthy yellow zone. Your ability to stay in the green zone depends largely on how you react to that first pain/discomfort feeling. Often a little rest now, or reduction in training mileage and intensity, with some treatment, can prevent a lot of time off later. Developing a proactive long-term injury-prevention strategy, such as strength training, stretching, regular massage and foam-rolling can help keep you in the ‘green.’ Physical therapy is a lot like homework, not all of us like having to do it, but if you don't do it, you’re quite likely to experience issues in the future!
What Causes Running Injuries?
There are a lot of theories as to what causes particular running injuries. Research has stated that “running practice is a necessary cause for RRI (Running Related Injury) and, in fact, the only necessary cause.” With running being the key risk factor for running injuries what other factors influence risk? Historically a lot of emphasis was placed on intrinsic factors like leg length discrepancy, pronation (flat foot), high arches, genu valgus/varum (knock knee or bow legged) and extrinsic factors like ‘special’ running shoes being stability shoes or anti-pronation shoes, lack of stretching. However, recent studies have shown there is no one specific risk factor that has a direct cause-effect relationship with injury rate or injury prevention. Whilst warming up, compression garments, acupuncture and massage have some evidence in reducing injury rates it is all a little grey. Leaving you with many potential causes for running injuries.
There is however one specific factor that has been proven, and that is training error. Estimates suggest that anywhere from 60 to as much as 80% of running injuries are due to training errors. Runners become injured when they exceed their tissues capacity to tolerate the stress that is placed upon them. A combination of overloading with inadequate recovery time. Poorly perfused tissues, such as ligaments, tendons and cartilage, are particularly at risk because they adapt more slowly than muscles to increased mechanical load.
Factors that affect how much training load a runner can tolerate before injury will also have a role. There are 2 key factors that appear to play a part in this – Body Mass Index (BMI > 25) and history of previous injury, especially in the last 12 months. While high BMI and previous injury may reduce the amount of running your body can manage, strength and conditioning is likely to increase it. There is a growing body of evidence supporting the use of strength training to reduce injury risk and improve performance. Training error and injury risk share a complex relationship - it may not be that total running mileage on its own is key but how quickly this increases, hill and speed training. The old saying of “too much, too soon” is probably quite accurate. Injury prevention is really a ‘mirror image’ of the causes of an injury. So, if you understand the primary reasons for getting injured then you are heading in the right direction to staying healthy this running season. There are prevention and treatment guides for the 6 most common running injuries which will be posted to this blog in the forthcoming days. If you would like any of them emailed to you then please contact me.
What are the most common injuries to be aware of?
Body tissues such as muscles and tendons are continuously stressed and repaired on a daily basis, as a result of both 'normal' functional activities and sport. An overuse injury often occurs when a specific tissue fails to repair in the time available, begins to breakdown initially at microscopic level and then over time develops into a true injury. So, the first time you feel a soreness, a stiffness or a pain is not necessarily when it all began.
The most common injury is ‘runners knee’ or patellofemoral pain syndrome and accounts for over 40% of running injuries. This is followed closely by plantar fasciitis, achilles tendinopathy and then ITB (iliotibial band syndrome), shin splints and hamstring strain. These injuries generally need complete rest or at least a reduction in training volume and intensity. Followed by sports massage / rehabilitation to promote tissue healing and mobility. Although these are overuse injuries there is frequently an underlying muscle weakness and/or flexibility issue that needs to be addressed with specific rehabilitation exercises. I will be posting specific information in due course about each of the most common running injuries with specific rehabilitation exercises for you to use.
The prevention and treatment guides for the following running injuries will be posted shortly on the blog.
· Medial tibial stress syndrome (shin splints)
· Patellofemoral pain (runner’s knee)
· Achilles tendinopathy
· Plantar fasciitis
· Hamstring strains
· Iliotibial band syndrome (ITB)
Downloadable PDF documents containing useful info about the injuries and suitable recovery options can be found here
The information contained within this post is solely for general information only. If you do pick up an injury (including 'tightness' 'irritation' or 'niggle') that you’re worried about then the sooner it’s treated the better. Please contact me using one of the methods below if you would like to discuss how I can help you move with ease.
Facebook: www.fb.com/bodybalancesportsmassagefleet
Website: www.bodybalancesportsmassage.co.uk