Conquering your running injuries!

 

With City to Surf just around the corner, many of us have started to greatly increase our running. Many will be beginning their first city to surf, for some it will be a regular occurrence and other is will be used as training.

Running is a fantastic form of exercise/training. It offers many Physiological and Psychological benefits, is affordable and can also include social components.

Whilst most people can increase their speed into a light jog and eventually a steady pace of running, correct technique is very important. Just as we have a walking gait, we also have a running gait which can be impaired by muscular weakness/imbalances, pain and injuries. It is critical that a correct running gait is implemented for your body during the initial introduction to running.

Running is a very repetitive movement producing a large amount of load/force through the body for an extended period. These loads are controlled by the lower limbs and travel into the upper body and spine.

Whilst Running offers many benefits, it can cause many Musculoskeletal injuries if not implemented effectively.

Over a 12 month period up to 70% of Runners will sustain an overuse injury with 42% being in the knee, 17% to the foot/ankle and 13% to lower leg and 11% to hip and pelvis.

https://sma.org.au/resources-advice/running/

Overuse injuries occur, from what we have touched on earlier in regards to poor technique, weakness, imbalance and are far more common than acute traumatic injuries.

A lot of overuse injuries associated with running include;

• Patellofemoral Pain (Runners Knee)
• Iliotibial band friction syndrome (ITB Pain)
• Plantar Fascitis (New or recurrent)
• Tibial Stress
• Patella Tendinopathy

When treating these kinds of injuries, we look at your activity history in detail, looking at how often your training, the amount or length of each session, the intensity and the type of activity you’re performing.

Many of these injuries can be avoided by understanding exactly how much your body can handle and introducing activity in a very specific way. Many people just start running and neglect strength and balance training into their week.

As clinical Exercise Physiologists we prescribe very specific programs that best match your capacity to deal with new stress. This is a fine line to balance as, if not enough load is introduced your capacity is unlikely to develop, however, too much and you are far more likely to develop an injury.

Running is the perfect example as introducing a lot LOAD too quickly i.e (suddenly doing city to surf with no preparation) can greatly increase you chance of resurfacing an old injury or developing a new one.

At Longevity our Clinical Exercise Physiologists work with many different populations to meet their physical goals, some including wanting to run the city to surf. We look at building their capacity with many tools including specific running training, lower limb strength and endurance and balance training ensuring that we manage any old or existing injuries, but most importantly reduce the risk of developing a new one.

Dylan our Clinical Exercise Physiologist is working on his lower limb Strength and Balance by introducing some effective loading.

 

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If you have an old or existing injury that needs attention and you don’t want to miss out from your sporting activities or need some specific training for your activity, call one of our Clinical Exercise Physiologists at Edgecliff, Lindfield, Randwick and Marrickvile.

Written by Dylan Furey