Injury Prevention for Runners
Nick Ferrari provides some tips on how to avoid running injuries.
Prevention is better than cure, and by considering the advice below, you can prevent running problems before they begin.
Glute Exercises
One of the things you should focus on is your glute muscles. Every runner needs strong glute muscles to run with proper form without risk of injury. The glute muscles consist of the gluteus medius, minimus, and maximus. These muscles are crucial for maintaining the appropriate stability in each leg required for running. While it may sound odd, running is an activity that requires single-leg stabilization and power.
After all, you continually lift off and land with a single leg. Therefore, each leg must maintain proper balance and stabilization to ensure that you are not putting yourself at risk of suffering an injury. The gluteus medius is responsible for your hip abduction, which makes it one of the most important muscles to strengthen during your workouts.
A weak gluteus medius can put your knees in a vulnerable running position facing inward. This can result in many problems, including significant knee injuries. Typically, it leads to either MCL or ACL tears or even simultaneous tears, which you want to avoid.
You should incorporate many leg-strengthening exercises into your daily routine to strengthen these muscles. These include single-leg squats, single-leg bridges, banded lateral walks, and even clamshells.
Pro Tip: Try to incorporate some of these exercises into your routine before heading out on a run. This will properly prepare your muscles to begin working and force you to remember to engage these muscles while you are running.
Sporting injuries can be costly, so make sure that you are covered with Medicare Advantage Plans 2021.
Use A Foam Roller
Every runner should use a foam roller. Plenty of research shows that foam rolling can be very effective at helping you reduce any bouts of muscle soreness that you experience from running, which can dramatically increase your range of motion. It is important to remember that foam rolling will only result in temporary benefits to alleviate muscle soreness, tightness, and other discomforts.
Therefore, it will not solve the issue causing the symptoms in the first place. You want to use a foam roller to address the connective tissue that attaches directly to your bones and muscles to stimulate better blood circulation and flexibility in your calves and thighs. However, you must incorporate this with glute strengthening exercises to minimize the stress you place on your muscles while running.
Get The Proper Shoes
While it would be fantastic to choose shoes solely based on aesthetics, that should be one of the last things you factor into your buying decision. Finding the shoes that offer the right level of support during your running sessions is vital. After all, running involves a lot of massive impacts.
You want to find the right running shoes that feel good even after miles of running. Deciding whether or not the shoes are right for you typically requires a lot more than a couple of minutes of jogging on a treadmill.
To determine what kind of shoes you should buy, you should try to understand your feet better. Determine whether your feet overpronate or supinate to ensure that you are getting the right pair with support in the right areas. You should also determine whether you land with your toebox or on your heels.
Also, determine whether you have a high arch or a flat foot. A good tip is to look at the bottom of your sneakers to see which area is worn down the most. While it may be fun to try out different styles, once you find a good one, you should probably stick with the brand and type of shoe you get.
Build Up Your Mileage Slowly
One of the most significant problems a lot of people 'run' into when they are getting into running would be doing too much too soon. By avoiding substantial spikes in intensity and duration of exercise too quickly, you should be able to minimize the risk of suffering from shin splints. By taking things much slower and building your way up, you should be able to do so without risking repetitive stress injuries.
Work On Your Core
By improving your core, you should maximize your stability. A strong core can enhance your balance and allow you to maintain proper posture throughout the exercise. It is essential for any exercise, but it can also be necessary for running. You will be able to reduce repetitive stress injury or knee pain resulting from running in a poor posture and position.
You can keep your core strong by incorporating many different core strengthening exercises into your daily routine, including, but not limited to, leg extensions, forward and side plants, and more.
Page Reference
If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:
- FERRARI, N. (2020) Injury Prevention for Runners [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/article590.htm [Accessed
About the Author
Nick Ferrari has written extensively on dieting and is a big advocate of keto, which he has researched and used extensively.