Injury Prevention Tips

This post can also be found on Active.com here. 

Injury prevention is a very important topic, especially if you are training for longer distances like a half or full marathon. There is no one reason why runners get injured, but there is a pretty consistent interaction of factors that play a role in most runner injuries. Factors commonly recognized include muscle weakness, inadequate flexibility, training errors, poor or incorrect running shoes, and poor or abnormal biomechanics.

Knowing how to train properly and safely is crucial to staying injury-free. Below are some ways you can help prevent injuries.

Build Mileage Gradually

Probably the number one cause of running injuries is when runners do too much, too soon, too fast. The body needs time to adapt from training changes and jumps in mileage or intensity. Build your weekly training mileage by no more than 5 to 10 percent per week. For example, if you follow the 5 percent rule and run 10 miles the first week, do just 10.5 miles the second week, and so on. If you are recovering from an injury or are brand new to running, it is best to stay close to the 5 percent limit or you’ll run the risk of injury or re-injury. More experienced runners who have no history of injuries can safely train closer to the 10 percent limit.

Listen to Your Body

Most running injuries don’t erupt from nowhere and blindside you. They produce signals—aches, soreness, and persistent pain—but it’s up to you to listen to them and take appropriate action. Plain and simple: If something hurts, do not run. As soon as you start to feel an injury coming on, stop running and rest for a few days. Once the pain is completely gone, you can slowly resume running.

At the first sign of an atypical pain (discomfort that worsens during a run or causes you to alter your gait), take three days off. Substitute light walking, bicycling, or another cross-training activity if you want. On the fourth day, run half your normal easy-day amount at a much slower pace than usual. If your run is pain-free, you can try running a little farther the next day. If you are still pain-free, continue easing back into your normal routine. If not, take another three days off, then repeat the process to see if it works the second time around. If not, you’ve got two options: Take more time off, and/or schedule an appointment with a sports-medicine specialist.

Strength Training

Strength training helps keep your body properly aligned while you are running. It is particularly important to strengthen the core and the hip muscles. When you strengthen the hips—the abductors, adductors, and gluteus maximus—you increase your leg stability all the way down to the ankle while also helping to prevent knee injuries.

You don’t want to train for bulging muscles. You need just enough core, hip, and lower-leg strength training to keep your pelvis and lower-extremity joints properly positioned. If you don’t have muscle balance, then you lose the symmetry, and that’s when you start having problems.

Stretching

Stretching should be an important component to any runner’s routine. Runners tend to be tight in predictable areas (most notably the hamstrings and calf muscles) and in turn, they get injured in and around those areas.

Do not do static stretches (holding an elongated muscle in a fixed position for 30 seconds or longer) before running. Stretching is best done after a warm-up period of 10-15 minutes after your muscles are warm, or at the end of your workout.

An important note about stretching after long runs (longer than 15 miles): Do not stretch immediately following your run. Your muscles have hundreds of micro-tears in them and stretching them could turn some of these into macro-tears, causing significant damage. Instead, cool down, take a shower, eat a good meal and drink plenty of fluids. Then it is okay to stretch later in the day.

There are a few rules when it comes to stretching. First, pain is never acceptable. Stretching should be comfortable and relaxing, never painful. If something hurts, you’re not in the right position or you’ve stretched too forcefully. Back off and check your position, then try again more gently. Second, move slowly into each stretch and don’t rush it. Once in position, hold steady for about 30 seconds and do not bounce. Finally, be consistent. The more consistently you stretch, the more effectively you will be in increasing your flexibility. Stretching daily initially and later 3 times a week for maintenance is a good rule of thumb.

RICE

RICE stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. When you’ve got muscle aches or joint pains, these four things are best for immediate treatment. These measures can relieve pain, reduce swelling, and protect damaged tissues, all of which speed healing. The only problem with RICE is that too many runners focus on the “I” while ignoring the “RCE.” Ice reduces inflammation, but to ice-and-run, ice-and-run, without giving the tissues enough time to heal, is a little like dieting every day until 6 p.m. and then pigging out. Special attention should be paid to the “rest” in RICE; do not run until the injury is healed.

RICE is most effective when done immediately following an injury. If you twist your ankle or strain your hamstring, plan to take a few days off from running. Apply ice for 10 to 15 minutes at a time, several times a day. If you can, elevate the area to limit swelling. Compression can also further reduce inflammation and can provide pain relief, especially when you first return to running. An ACE bandage is the simplest way to wrap a swollen area.

Do Not Race or Do Speedwork Too Often

Researchers have found a correlation between injuries and frequent race efforts. This connection also extends to speedwork, since intervals also require a near-maximal effort. So if you train fast once or twice a week and then race on the weekend, that’s a lot of hard efforts without sufficient rest, particularly if you follow this pattern week after week. Regular speed training is fine for those aiming for podium placements or age-group awards, but it is not recommended for the average runner.

Give yourself plenty of recovery time. A good general rule is to rest one day for each mile raced. So, if you race a 5K, take three days off to rest and let your body recover. If you are trying to quicken your pace for a specific goal, add a weekly or bi-weekly speedwork session to your training plan, but be wise about it.

Cross training

Use cross-training activities to supplement your running, improve your muscle balance, and keep you injury-free. Swimming, cycling, yoga, Pilates, elliptical training, and rowing will burn a lot of calories and improve your aerobic fitness, but be careful not to aggravate injury-prone areas. If you are injured, let pain be your guide on which activities are okay.

Properly fitted shoes

Shoes are the most important piece of equipment that you need to run, so having a pair that fits you properly is crucial to your running success. There is no one shoe that is right for every runner and there is no shoe that is guaranteed to eliminate an injury. To find the right shoe for your feet, go to a specialty running store. The best running stores will watch you run and analyze your gait and stride to put you in the proper shoe. As a general rule, shoes should be replaced every 300-500 miles (depending on your size, weight, foot strike, and shoe type). Keep a training log to keep track of your shoe mileage and be sure to replace them when you hit the 300-500 mile mark.

Run on a Level Surface

Another factor that could have a significant impact on running injuries is road camber. No doubt you always run on the left side of the road facing traffic. That’s good for safety reasons. But it also gives you a functional leg-length discrepancy, since your left foot hits the road lower on the slope than your right foot. You’re also placing your left foot on a slant that tends to limit healthy pronation, and your right foot in a position that encourages overpronation. And you’re doing this mile after mile, day after day, week after week, which could lead to hip injuries.

If you can, try to do some of your training runs on a level surface like a bike path or dirt trail. A local track also provides a firm, essentially flat surface that’s great for slow-paced running. Also consider the treadmill – it’s the perfect surface for balanced running. At the very least, a treadmill provides a great surface for beginning runners, runners who are recovering from an injury, and perhaps even marathoners aiming to increase mileage without increasing their injury risk.

Can Fascial Stretch Therapy Make You Faster?

Last week I used a Groupon for a one-hour stretch therapy session at a local women’s fitness center. I will admit that I was a little skeptical at first – I mean, I can stretch on my own, so why would I need someone else to help me stretch? I had the choice of using the Groupon for a massage or for stretch therapy and I went in actually looking for a massage. But then the woman who owned the place told me more about fascial stretch therapy and I decided to give it a try.

I knew I was a little tight – I’m in the peak of my marathon training, so being tight is normal for me. But apparently the therapist thought I was equivalent to working on a piece of wood. And I will say that one hour on the table being stretched by someone else was awesome. It was almost as relaxing and felt just as good as a massage. And when I got up, I felt looser, taller, and more relaxed.

So what exactly is fascial stretch therapy? As I’m told…Fascia is the material surrounding all muscles in your body. Like other tissues, fascia can become tight and less mobile. The result is decreased range of motion (ROM), discomfort with stretching, and decreased ability to recover from activity. The stretch therapy helps release the tension in the fascia, resulting in an increased range of motion, decreased pain, and improved athletic performance. By extending the stretch to the joint capsule, you increase the benefits of traditional stretching, and the assisted nature of the treatment allows for greater gains than traditional stretching.

Fascial Stretch Therapy has some unique characteristics that distinguish it from other types of assisted stretching. It is guided by ten principles:

1. Synchronize your breathing with your movement.
2. Tune your nervous system to current conditions.
3. Follow a logical anatomical order.
4. Make gains in your range of motion without pain.
5. Stretch the fascia not just the muscle.
6. Use multiple planes of movement.
7. Target the entire joint.
8. Use traction for maximal lengthening.
9. Facilitate body reflexes for optimal results.
10. Adjust your stretching to your present goals.

According to my stretch therapist, she was able to help one woman decrease her running time by 45 seconds per mile through regular stretch therapy sessions. For someone who is trying to qualify for Boston and not feeling very confident about it, she certainly had my attention. And I definitely noticed a difference after that first session, so she didn’t have to work too hard to convince me to buy a package for more appointments. Since I am so stiff, I am going to go twice per week for the next two weeks and then once per week thereafter until my marathon in December. Then I can give you a more true report as to whether fascial stretch therapy really can make you faster. In the meantime, I will at least feel less stiff and more relaxed.

If you’re interested in trying fascial stretch therapy, the Stretch to Win website can help you locate a certified therapist.

 

 

Feeling Strong And Ready To Go Insane

This will probably be my last post about my paleo diet for a while, unless of course there is an overwhelming desire for me to keep you all updated. I don’t want anyone reading this to feel that I am pushing anything at them or preaching that everyone should go paleo. I realize that most people are perfectly happy with their eating habits and have no desire to try a paleo diet, which is totally fine. That was me a few months ago when my husband was trying it and I thought he was crazy.

Anyway, I just want to talk about something I’ve noticed lately since I’ve been paleo and that is my strength. Almost from the very beginning I have felt noticeably stronger, especially during hot yoga. This morning’s class was amazing – I hit every single pose, didn’t fall out of any poses, and felt so strong all the way to the end. What’s more is that when I look in the mirror, I think I look stronger, too. My muscles are slowly becoming more toned and more defined. My stomach, which has always been a little bloated and muffin top-y since the birth of my second child (I had no problem getting my flat stomach back after my first child, but the second one seriously wrecked havoc on my body) is suddenly getting flat again! You have no idea how happy this makes me. Sure, I still have a little extra skin there, but there is never any bloating or bulging and I am actually starting to see some definition in my abs.

I mentioned this in a previous post, but one of the drawbacks to eating gluten, wheat, and refined carbs is that they have the potential to cause inflammation in your body. While I owe a great deal of my recovery from my hip injury to acupuncture, stretching, massaging, and resting, I can’t help but think that cutting carbs from my diet helped bring down the inflammation in my hip and helped me recover faster, too.

So what’s next? On my quest to try new things, I’ve decided to go insane. That is, I’ve been sucked into the late night infomercials for the Insanity Workout and decided to try it and see just how strong and toned I can become. I think it will be great cross-training and strength-training to supplement my running, and I’m always looking for a good challenge. I’ll let you all know if I get killed or not. If it doesn’t kill me, it will make me stronger, right?

Nagging Foot Pain

It seems that every time I train for a marathon and my mileage gets up to 35-40 miles per week, there is a spot on the inside of my left foot that starts to nag me. And it turns out that this round of training is no different. I’ve tried to ignore the pain, but I know that ignoring it won’t really make it go away (as much as I would actually like that to happen).

Back when I lived in Seattle, I had a great chiropractor/sports medicine doc who was good at what he did. So I figured I would take advantage while we are in town and go get my foot looked at.

It turns out that the problem, like most running injuries, results from an imbalance and several weak spots through my hips, glutes, and psoas muscles.  This causes a chain reaction all the way down to my foot, causing some inflammation. The good news is that it is nothing major and that I don’t need to stop running. All I need to do is stretch more, foam-roll more, and strengthen those weak muscles. He also taped my foot and ankle, which for a few hours afterwards felt so tight I thought my foot was going to go numb. But I really do think it has helped as my foot has felt great for the past couple of days during my runs.

All of this is to say – again – how important it is to pay attention to your hips, glutes, and the rest of your core. All of the traveling I have been doing lately has made it too easy to slip out of my routine and forget to incorporate strength training exercises into my training. Even though I have been swimming and doing yoga, it hasn’t been enough – there are still imbalances and weaknesses. A pain in the foot, after all, is not likely the result of something happening in your foot. It could come from your hips, back, glutes, etc. So while icing and ibuprofen may good in the short-term, a good overall strengthening program for your entire body is best for the long-term.

Ashley’s Training Update and Progress

I thought I would take a break today from all of the more informative and formal blog posts and write about my own running progress. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m training for the Chicago marathon and am now about 6 weeks into training. I started out very slowly and cautiously since I was bouncing back from an injury, but I’m now feeling great and confident with no problems, ready to tackle the next 4 months of training. I thought I would share some things that have really been working for me and maybe they’ll help some of you, too.

I’m approaching this round of marathon training a little differently than I have in the past. The biggest thing I’m working on is form, which I’ve written about quite a bit over the past few months. I feel like I’ve finally mastered all of the elements to good form and now rather than consciously thinking about every step, it’s more like I’m on autopilot, just cruising along. I found a few Podrunner mixes that I thoroughly enjoy that are 175-176 bpms, so I just turn them on and cruise along, keeping my cadence steady and my stride short. I feel like this alone has had the biggest impact on my training. With a high cadence and short stride, I seem to finish all of my runs with energy left over and a spring in my step. With a longer stride, I used to get exhausted and even had to take walk breaks every few miles. Now I can complete a 6 mile run without taking one walk break and still feel like I could keep going. It also makes it easier to go faster with less effort. Since my cadence is already high, all I have to do is increase my stride length and lean forward and before I know it, I’m doing speed work. This brings me to my next point.

Another thing I am working on is slowing down. This is actually harder for me than I anticipated. One of the reasons I’ve been injured so many times in the past is that I train at a pace that is too fast. I cannot help it – I simply just go at a pace that is comfortable, yet challenging. I like to push myself – it comes from having a type A personality. The problem comes when you do this for every run, especially your long runs. You are just begging for an injury if you keep it up.  When I create training plans for my clients, I include paces for every single run that are dependent on 1) Their previous race times and 2) Their current race goal. They usually get the training plan and say, “Wait a minute, my goal is to get faster. Why do you have me running one to two minutes slower per mile than what my goal race pace is?” It’s a long-proven method, however, for distance running. If you slow down your long runs during training, you are increasing your endurance. Then you incorporate speed work into your training to work on speed. But the speed work and the long runs should never mix because if they do, your risk of injury increases significantly. The only time they actually come together is on race day. So, a big goal for me this time around is to slow down, which takes conscious effort. I have a hard time staying over a 9:00 pace, but I’m working on it!

I’ve also learned a lot more about recovery over the past few weeks and things that work well for my body when it comes to recovering from a long run. I’m up to 12 miles now and have a recovery routine down that makes me feel great – like I only ran 5 miles. One thing that I think has helped is compression socks. I wear them during my long runs and then keep them on for 30-45 minutes after. Another thing I have started doing is drinking Recoverite as soon as I get home. I used it several years ago and remember it working, but I don’t remember it ever working this well! (Full review coming soon.) It’s a powdered drink mix that you mix with water and drink right after your run. I went for the chocolate flavor this time around, which is much better than the citrus flavor I drank years ago. It’s very easy on the stomach and keeps me very satisfied until I feel like eating real food (usually about 45-60 minutes after I get back). Right after I drink the Recoverite, I lay on the ground with my butt against the wall and put my legs straight up in the air. I read about these “leg drains” in Chi Running and after I tried it, I was amazed at how good my legs felt. Just lay there for 5 minutes and let the blood drain out of your legs so that when you stand up, fresh blood is pumped back in. Your legs will feel tingly as the blood flows away from your feet and legs, but when you stand up, you will feel like you have a new pair of legs! The final piece to my recovery routine is an ice bath. I know some people hate them, but I personally don’t mind them. I just listen to my ipod and keep my mind occupied on something else. After the ice bath, I take a warm shower and then am ready to eat a real meal. A few hours later I’ll spend some time on my foam roller and do a few light stretches. You never want to stretch immediately following a long run (anything over 14-15 miles) because you just created hundreds of micro-tears in your muscles and stretching runs the risk of turning one of those into a macro-tear. So it’s always best to wait several hours to do any stretching.

So there you have it – that’s where I am in my training. I’m feeling good, confident, and most of all, excited to keep training. I feel like I’m at a point where I really know my body, what works for it and what doesn’t, and I can’t wait to see where it takes me!