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How To Stay Injury Free This Running Season

HOW TO STAY INJURY FREE THIS RUNNING SEASON

By: Dr. Christine Meckamalil, DC

As the weather warms up outside, we begin to see more and more runners come out of their long winter hibernation. Running is one of the purest forms of human movement and the foundation of many sports and athletic pursuits. However, although running provides several cardiovascular benefits, it also comes with the risk of several injuries. Every time your foot strikes the ground during a run, the impact forces on your body are 4-8 times your body weight! This impact can happen over 800 times per kilometre of running, so it is easy to see how such a simple physical activity can pose the risk of injury. Therefore injury prevention is very important for any runner, whether you are a beginner or an elite athlete. To ensure that you stay safe and injury-free this running season, I’ve listed a few of my injury prevention tips!

1) Don’t do too much, too soon: Overuse injuries are very common amongst runners to do a sudden increase in training intensity or volume. This increased demand may be too much for your body to handle and can lead to injury. A simple way to avoid such injuries is to apply the 10% rule. Do not increase your weekly volume or intensity of runs by greater than 10%. Increasing the volume and intensity of your runs by only a modest amount, will allow your body to adapt to stress that you’re are putting on it.

2) Stretching: I can’t emphasis enough the importance of a proper warm up and cool down. Before you begin your run do some dynamic stretches that warm up your muscles and prime them for the activity they are about to do. After your run, take the time to show your body some love by doing static stretches for the muscles that have been working hard to keep you moving. If you need help with what kind of stretches to do pre and post run, shoot me an email! I’m more than happy to send some stretches your way!

3) R & R: Experts from various sport backgrounds can agree on one very important component of any fitness training program….REST AND RECOVERY! Your success with any training program is highly determined by your body’s ability to adapt to the demands of the activity and recover for the next session. To rest and recover properly means to allow yourself to get 7-9 hours of sleep per night, staying hydrated, proper nutrition and cross training to ensure you are correcting muscle imbalances.

4) Seek expert advice and take care of your body: I often tell my runners that “one does not plan to fail – they fail to plan.” It is essential that every runner have their own unique running plan that follows the tips I mentioned above. Seeking advice and care from a qualified healthcare practitioner when you are injured allows you to receive not only a treatment plan but also a return to running and future injury prevention plan. Ideally, you want to find a practitioner who has experience treating running injuries and/or is a runner themselves. Do not ignore the aches and pains that persist over several runs. The 5 most dangerous words for any runner are “ maybe it will go away?” Trying to run through the pain can lead to movement compensations and secondary injuries. A proper running assessment, by a trained professional, can help identify factors that may increase your risk of injuries and help to improve your running performance.

With these running tips I hope you stay safe and injury free this season and HAPPY RUNNING!

Dr. Christine Meckamalil – drmeckamalil@infinityhealthcentre.com

by mitch

The 5 Most Dangerous Words....

The 5 Most Dangerous Words…

By: Dr. Christine Meckamalil, DC

“Maybe it will go away?” These are the 5 most dangerous words for any patient. You feel an ache or pain somewhere in your body either before, during or after an activity and you think to yourself….maybe it will go away. Being a runner and a health care provider, I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve had this thought many times myself. In some cases we get lucky and the pain does go away, but often times it doesn’t and we keep ignoring it until we fall victim to an injury.

Injury prevention is a topic I am very passionate about both personally and professionally as Chiropractor.  I am a firm believer in not only treating injuries, but also empowering my patients with knowledge about their bodies to help manage current concerns and prevent future setbacks. As a chiropractor, it is critical for me to understand what caused your injury in the first place and figure out how to minimize your risk of reoccurrence.

Injury prevention is a huge topic, so I find it easiest to explain by breaking it down into what I call intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Intrinsic factors are elements within yourself such muscle strength, flexibility, range of motion, gait etc. Extrinsic factors include your environment, the frequency and duration of your activities, equipment, etc. Understanding the interplay of these factors is essential in keeping you injury and pain-free.

Every activity, whether it’s running, skiing or golfing, needs an adequate amount of strength, stability and flexibility of the structures that allow us to create movement. Let’s use running as an example. Although running is a very common activity, the area that a runner develops pain in their body is unique to the individual. Common areas that I address in treating runners are tight and/or weak calf, thigh and buttock muscles, ankle mobility and of course core stability. It is important to know your body well and more importantly, know what areas may be weak and begging for some TLC.

Once you understand the intrinsic factors, you can begin to address any extrinsic factors that may be affecting your performance. This can range anywhere from your training frequency/duration to the shoes you wear. You are probably starting to understand that there are many factors that can have a big influence on your risk of developing an injury. The next time you are doing a physical activity, take some time to analyze the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that may be influencing your performance. Through my own running experiences and years of treating patients of all levels of physical activity (from weekend warriors to elite athletes), the most important thing I’ve learned in that humans have an innate need to move and be functional. My ultimate goal is give you the tools you need to keep you moving and get you back to doing the things you love!

by mitch