Dr. Leif Edwardson
Running season is right around the corner and we often get questions about previous injuries, or how to prevent the common injuries that crop up with this sport.
Pre-season injuries:
If you have been taking time off from running, you might have noticed decreased pain from a nagging injury, but it might not necessarily be gone. Previous injury has been found to be the strongest risk factor for a running-related injury (Sanfilippo et al., 2021). When you go back to running, the increased load from training again might have your pain coming back, so what better time to address this than during your off-season before that last bit of snow is gone? One of our team at MOST can evaluate your movement, strength, and range of motion to help deal with any dysfunction found that might have been contributing to this injury.
Standard running-related injuries:
Kakouris et al. (2021) found the most common prevalence of running injuries were patellofemoral pain syndrome (runner’s knee), medial tibial stress syndrome (shin splints), plantar fasciitis, IT band syndrome, and Achilles tendinopathy. Unfortunately, treating these injuries is not a cookie-cutter approach, and should take into account the person who has them, their training and lifestyle, as well as specific findings from a professional assessment. Some simple tips can be found below.
Tips for preparation:
- Starting slow and building up to higher loads: this allows the body to adapt to the new demands you are placing on it and prevent overuse injuries when jumping in too fast. Weekly your training load should probably increase by about 10%.
- Strength/cross training: building a strong base for the running muscles as well as preparing weak areas for the demands of running will put you far ahead of just jumping back into running season. There are many great at-home videos for strength training for runners on YouTube, or come in for an evaluation and we can build you a custom program to your needs.
- Cadence: cadence is the steps you take per minute. Typically we want this to fall between about 160 to 180 for a beginner in order to reduce injury risk. A higher cadence puts less force into the knees, which may reduce the risk of some running-related injuries (Musgjerd, et al. 2021). This depends on each person and a variety of factors, but shooting for somewhere in that range is a great start.
- Seek care if needed: early evaluation and intervention by an expert clinician can help keep a niggle from turning into a full-blown injury. Whether that is massage for tight muscles, or chiro/physio to look at specific injury risks, it is important to get something evaluated by a professional if you start to have concerns.
References:
Kakouris, N., Yener, N., & Fong, D. T. P. (2021). A systematic review of running-related musculoskeletal injuries in runners. Journal of sport and health science, 10(5), 513–522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2021.04.001
Musgjerd, T., Anason, J., Rutherford, D., & Kernozek, T. W. (2021). Effect of Increasing Running Cadence on Peak Impact Force in an Outdoor Environment. International journal of sports physical therapy, 16(4), 1076–1083. https://doi.org/10.26603/001c.25166
Sanfilippo, D., Beaudart, C., Gaillard, A., Bornheim, S., Bruyere, O., & Kaux, J. F. (2021). What Are the Main Risk Factors for Lower Extremity Running-Related Injuries? A Retrospective Survey Based on 3669 Respondents. Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine, 9(11), 23259671211043444. https://doi.org/10.1177/23259671211043444
