“50% of all runners will experience some interruption to their training each year.”
It can be hard to avoid if you are running high mileage but there are important strategies to implement so that you can manage niggles that arise and prevent running injuries that in turn impact your training.
The most common running-related injuries involve pain in the shin, achilles tendon, plantar heel aspect & patellofemoral (knee) joint.
What do you think are the main causes of these injuries?
A recent study found runners to blame shoes and lack of stretching but in fact stretching is not actually clinically linked to reduce your likelihood of injury & instead a prior injury is the most common cause.
What do you think you should do if you get an injury?
Once again, a study highlighted that people believe rest is the best cure and that they should simply stop running for a bit and things will settle. If you have had a running injury, you will know that often this is not the case and even after rest, pain can resume when you return to running.
Whether you are looking to complete your first park run or compete in ultramarathons – the advice remains the same : Focus on the fundamentals.
- Find a training plan that ramps up progressively and not too quickly. Training load is a huge risk factor with running injuries.
- Implement strength work to improve your capacity to tolerate an increase in running load with training.
- Recover well. An increase in training will demand greater need for rest and sleep. Ensure you are fitting in AT LEAST one rest day each week around your training.
- Nutrition and hydration. Make sure you are adequately fuelling for the demands of daily life and your basic physiological processes PLUS your training. Low energy availability is a huge cause for concern when it comes to training amongst busy lives.
What would a Running Assessment involve?
A thorough assessment of your range of motion and strength capacity in comparison to normative values for runners. Once we have highlighted the areas of weakness (in relation to your history of niggles and injuries if relevant), I will create a bespoke strength & conditioning program with appropriate exercises and drills to compliment your running & improve your performance.
Book an assessment today or enquire here for further information.