Healthy Running
Running Injury Free
While running is a great form of exercise and keeps us healthy, it is an activity with injury potential. Most running injuries are due to overuse and repetitive stress. Typically, you are running more miles than your body can handle and/or you are not allowing enough time for your legs to recover. Increasing your mileage does not always equal improved results. Through proper training, injury prevention, and listening to your body, this will help you stay injury free.
What can you do to help stay injury free?
While proper stretching and strengthening are important, implementing a system of listening to your body and knowing how much/often to train are some of the biggest ways that you can stay healthy. The following tips will help you with this:
1: Quantity vs. Quality-Don’t make it a goal to log a certain number miles per week (Quantity)-look at what you are training for, and what the key workouts are that need be completed (Quality)-more does not always mean better! Sometimes just decreasing your mileage by as little as 5 miles a week could be the difference from staying injury free and being consistently injured.
2: Gradually increase your mileage-As you increase your mileage more stress is placed on the body. Your body needs to adapt to its current mileage before more is added, otherwise you risk injury and breaking down. Generally, your total mileage should not increase by more then 1-2 miles/week.
3: Recovery-Certain aspects of running take longer to recover from than others. As a general rule, it usually takes 1 day of recovery for every mile run hard (as in a race) so plan on it taking you close to a month to feel recovered from your marathon. Depending on length (long runs) and intensity (intervals, speed), it may take a day or two until your legs will feel ready for your next run. In many cases, it is better to follow a hard run the day after with an easier workout or a cross training activity like swimming or bicycling.
4: Keep a training log/Mental Notes-If you become injured, or feel more fatigued than normal, you can look at your training log to see what you were doing in the days or weeks leading up to your fatigue or injury. On the other hand, if you felt great, then you can look at what training you did that gave you good results.
Injury of the month: Plantar Fasciitis
What is it? Inflammation of your plantar fascia which is a structure that starts at your heel and runs along the bottom of your foot.
| Spotlight: Kinesio® Tape
Olympic Gold Medalist Kerri Walsh wearing Kinesio® Tape on her shoulder. If you watched this past Summer Olympics, you may have noticed competitors with bands of colored tape. “What is that?” you may have asked your self. What you saw was Kinesio® Tape. The tape has a stretch to it that helps promote and guide movement. While the tape can be worn for multiple days helping provide support in between treatment sessions, in most cases, you won't even realize that you have tape on your body. Kinesio® Tape can be used for a wide range of running injuries such a muscle sprain strains, and Achilles Tendonitis.
Kinesio® Tape applied to a Plantar Fasciitis injury. |
How is it
injured? Overuse such as running or too much activity on your
feet. Plantar Fasciitis is not an injury that happens instantly. The
plantar fascia has become progressively injured over time but it can take
a while before any pain or dysfunction is noticeable. Because of this,
Plantar Fasciitis can be very persistent and patience is needed when suffering from it.
What causes it? As the
plantar fascia is overused leading to injury, it becomes weak and
breaks down. This could be the result of but not limited to improper
biomechanics, weakness, or overcompensating. Scar tissue is laid down to
help it heal but
unfortunately, the scar tissue can cause the plantar
fascia to become chronically tight which can lead to pain/dysfunction. Typically,
the scar tissue does not go away on its own.
How is it treated? Using deep tissue massage type techniques such as Active Release Technique® (ART®) and Graston® Technique to help break down scar tissue as well as stretch and lengthen the plantar fascia. Exercises for foot strengthening and balance are necessary as well.
Treatment with Graston® Technique.
Stretch of the Month: Stair/Step Stretch
What does it stretch? Gastrocnemius (Calf) muscle as well as the arch of your
foot.
Why you should do it? Tightness in your Gastrocnemius muscle as well as the arch of your foot can contribute to a variety of injuries. Since your calf muscle inserts into the back of your heel, it will pull on your heel when tight. This can cause extra stress to be placed on the bottom of your foot since the plantar fascia originates on the heel as well. Because of this, the structures in the bottom of the foot work harder then they need to which can lead to overuse injuries such as Plantar Fasciitis.
How should you stretch it? Your back leg is stretched while your front leg is used for support. Rest your hands on the wall in front of you for added support. The stretch should feel tolerable-while you should feel a good stretch, it should never hurt. Hold the stretch for 20 seconds and repeat 2 times at least 1 time per day.
When not to do it? You are suffering from a severe calf strain as well as upon waking up. While you are sleeping the muscles tighten up and are usually more sensitive when you begin to move them. It is best to wait until you have been awake for a while and have given the muscles a chance to loosen up on their own by being on your feet.
"Helping you reach the finish line pain free!"
If you have an injury, or a previous health condition, check with your doctor before performing any of the information mentioned in this article.
Questions? E-mail us at drschmidt@excelsporttherapy.com or visit www.excelsporttherapy.com