Running Injuries - Here's a Bottom-line Checklist to Help Prevent running injuries

Athletes who run in their sport may think they know everything about preventing running-related injuries (especially if they’re regular readers of SIB) but the latest issue of the Australian publication, Sports Coach, provides a round-up of useful tips. Most of them are fairly basic, but it’s the basics that often get forgotten (Sports Coach, Vol 25 Number 1, pp 22-23).

Prevention is better than cure, so if you know what causes injuries you will have a better chance of preventing them. Several factors have been linked with an increased incidence of running injuries including poor warm ups, training errors, incorrect running style, poor footwear and environmental conditioning. The majority of running injuries are ‘overuse injuries’ and approximately 75% of injuries happen from the knee downward. No prizes for guessing that the knee accounts for 25% of running injuries, more than any other body part, with feet, ankles, shins, hips and back all coming into the grand scheme of things. Once the injury occurs, it will obviously have a negative impact on your training programme and the bad news is that if you don’t get the injury treated properly there is a good chance (20-70%) that it will be likely to recur at some point in the future. So Sports Coach provides this whistle-stop guide to how to stop running injuries in their tracks:

Warm up and cool down properly.

Unwise runners tend to get their training kit on and disappear out the front door without so much as a stretch. No wonder half-way round their run their poor old hamstrings are starting to ache. When they get back from their run they slump down in the chair, gasping for breath, having forgotten to cool down properly. Such runners need to be reminded that the body is just like a high-performance car; it needs time to get the motor running before you can take it for a spin round the country lanes.

Build up your distances and running speeds gradually.

Equally, unwise runners think that because they’ve watched the London Marathon, their first training run should be 20+ miles! Follow a training programme prepared by a qualified coach. If you are simply looking to improve your fitness, you can add some variety to your training by including some other activities such as swimming and cycling.

Choose a decent pair of shoes.

Don’t go for the all-singing, all-dancing spangly pair that looks the part. Make sure you go to a reputable running shop and spend some time with the assistants (usually runners themselves) to find out which shoe is the most suitable for your body and the type of training you are going to do. You may even need to have an expert give your body the once over to check you haven’t got any biomechanical abnormalities.

Avoid running in extreme temperatures.

(Okay, more likely in Oz than the UK) but be sensible, watch out in the wet and cold for slippery surfaces, use properly maintained running tracks and, if you are lucky enough to get out on a sunny day, drink lots of fluids and get your shades, hat and sunscreen on.

If you are unfortunate enough to get an injury…

If you are unfortunate enough to get an injury, seek medical advice and above all else make sure you take some time out of training to recover. Once you are on the road to recovery, start to work on regaining your strength and range of movement before recommencing running. Remember to build up to your previous distance and pace gradually.

Nick Grantham