{"id":4140,"date":"2018-05-18T11:25:30","date_gmt":"2018-05-18T11:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/?p=4140"},"modified":"2021-09-07T05:42:19","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T05:42:19","slug":"injury-prevention-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/injury-prevention-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Injury Prevention Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&nbsp;&ldquo;Running excites me, when I start to run, you don&rsquo;t want to stop, your body wants more so you end up overloading your body and get injured&rdquo; <\/strong>(Saragiotto et al 2014).<\/p>\n<p>We see many runners who associate excessive running with something positive, rather than being potentially detrimental. Consequently, they may fail to adopt the necessary precautions to prevent over training. It&rsquo;s easy to get into a habit of &ldquo;getting the miles in&rdquo;. This can lead to ignoring those &ldquo;niggles&rdquo; that may later turn into an injury.<\/p>\n<p>So how do we reduce injury risk and run happy?<\/p>\n<p><strong>1: The 10% Rule<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The 10PR is based on the principle that you try not to increase your weekly mileage by more than 10% from the previous week.<\/li>\n<li>It allows the load on the tendons, joints and muscles to be gradual. This means these structures have time to adapt and change in response to the training we undergo.<\/li>\n<li>For example, if you start with running 10 miles a week, within 8 weeks this will have increased to around 20 miles.<\/li>\n<li>Most training programs for a race are often a minimum of 8 weeks. The 10PR is often the reason underpinning this time frame.<\/li>\n<li>The 10PR is be more applicable to those clocking up high levels of weekly mileage. If you are training for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.runthrough.co.uk\/5k-runs-uk\/\"><strong>5km<\/strong><\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.runthrough.co.uk\/10k-runs-uk\/\"><strong>10km<\/strong><\/a>, you may find a range of 20-25% increase comfortable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>2: Rest days<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Rest days are crucial!<\/li>\n<li>During our rest periods, the body has a chance to adapt. It is when the hypertrophy (muscle growth) occurs, our cells regenerate and injured tissue heals.<\/li>\n<li>Planning rest days into your routine can help to reduce the overall feeling of fatigue and may increase your overall running performance.<\/li>\n<li>You should never feel that rest days are &ldquo;lazy&rdquo; or &ldquo;wasting time&rdquo;. They are needed and are equally as important as other components of your training.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>3: Don&rsquo;t get <em>too<\/em> hung up on footwear <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Invest in a pair of trainers that you feel comfortable in. However, don&rsquo;t worry too much about trying to make your feet 100% &ldquo;neutral&rdquo;.<\/li>\n<li>&ldquo;Incorrect footwear&rdquo; or a &ldquo;bad foot shape&rdquo; often get blamed for causing running injuries.<\/li>\n<li>Foot type and footwear <strong>have not<\/strong> been found to have a correlational relationship with injury risk.<\/li>\n<li>The idea that a neutral foot will prevent injuries is most likely secondary to the marketing of running shoes!<\/li>\n<li>Get trainers half a size bigger than your usual size. This gives your toes room to slide forward a little and protects those toe nails!<\/li>\n<li>Break your new shoes in gradually &ndash; just as you would for any other pair! Go for a walk in them or a short run first.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>4: Strength and conditioning<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Strength and conditioning is the process of using exercise prescription to enhance the performance of an individual in their sport, at any level.<\/li>\n<li>Introducing <strong>strength and conditioning work<\/strong> allows you to focus on targeting the muscle groups used the most in running, to help improve their load tolerance. This can improve our running efficiency and reduce injury risk.<\/li>\n<li>These are: Quadriceps, Hamstrings, Calf, Gluteals and core muscles.<\/li>\n<li>Some exercises you could use: Squats, lunges, single leg squats, hip abduction, step ups, deadlifts, dead bug, planks, bird dog and bridges.<\/li>\n<li>You could also work on high intensity sessions, mobility drills and flexibility.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>5: Cross training<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bringing other forms of training into our routine can reduce the repetitive load of running on our joints, whilst keeping our fitness levels up.<\/li>\n<li>Vo2 Max is a measurement of fitness, meaning the maximum oxygen an individual can utilise during exercise.<\/li>\n<li>During swimming, running and cycling this is thought to transfer, meaning you are training your body to utilise oxygen in a similar way, which ever form of exercise you chose to do.<\/li>\n<li>Try out: Cross trainer, rowing, swimming, walking, versa climber and bike.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>6: Make sure previous injuries have fully resolved <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Previous injuries have been identified as a <strong>key risk factor<\/strong> for injury. It is important you do not return to training until the previous injury has resolved.<\/li>\n<li>It is unlikely to improve with the &ldquo;no pain, no gain&rdquo; attitude!<\/li>\n<li>If you have recently sustained an injury and are unsure whether you are okay to return, it would be worth arranging an appointment with a Physiotherapist so that we can talk you through a safe and effective return to running.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>7: Hydration <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Water is needed for many processes in the body: nourishing the cells, regulating our body temperature, removal of waste products and maintaining the health of our joints.<\/p>\n<p>When we run, we begin to lose water very quickly. It is crucial that we maintain our hydration levels both before and after a run.<\/p>\n<p>Ideally you should be aiming for:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>500ml 2 hours before a race of long run<\/li>\n<li>150ml just before you run<\/li>\n<li>Try to aim for 2L of water a day in general<\/li>\n<li>Start drinking water very soon after you stop running, there is no specific amount for this but try to keep a 500ml bottle on you and keep sipping slowly and consistently!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>8: Look after yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Many other factors can indirectly increase our risk of injury. Not getting adequate sleep, being under a lot of stress and not maintaining a healthy and balanced diet are a few factors to consider.<\/li>\n<li>Although running is often used as a way to de-stress, there is a big difference to sweating out a bad day to being exposed to stress and anxiety for a prolonged period. Hormonal and chemical changes mean this may lead to an increased risk of injury.<\/li>\n<li>Look after yourself and your body will thank you for it!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;&ldquo;Running excites me, when I start to run, you don&rsquo;t want to stop, your body wants more so you end up overloading your body and get injured&rdquo; (Saragiotto et al 2014). We see many runners who associate excessive running with something positive, rather than being potentially detrimental. Consequently, they may fail to adopt the necessary [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4142,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":""},"categories":[50,5,3,16,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4140"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6699,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140\/revisions\/6699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}