Common Running Injuries & How To Prevent Them

did you know that when you're running you are putting around two to three times your whole body weight through each individual foot and leg on every single stride it's therefore not really much of a surprise that we do get niggles pains and injuries from years of running well we're going to help you identify those by covering the more common injuries as well as bring you tips on how to limit them [Music] [Applause] [Music] the ankle sprain oh it's one of the most common and most frustrating running injuries because you can simply be running along minding your own business and then suddenly wham for no reason you go over on your ankle i mean it could be a curb or something in the road but sometimes it just happens with nothing in the way and you will get a sudden shooting pain in your ankle if you're really unlucky you might even hear a popping sound that's not a good sign but you'll usually find you'll hop for a little bit probably a few explicits too before you can actually work out how severe that is but basically you will have over stretched or strained all the ligaments and the tendons that surround your ankle and you'll usually find it's those on the outside as you roll onto the outside of that ankle but once you've done a bit of hopping you can probably tell if you can put weight on it if you can then it's a good idea to try and walk it out very gently and get back home if it's more severe then you might need to get help but once you are at home it's a good idea to elevate it because the swelling is all going to go down to your ankle and obviously being at the lowest part of our body it's going to actually swell quite quickly so if you can keep it up as much as you can and with some intermittent icing and then you'll be able to work out how bad it is if it did sound bad or you can't even touch it it's worth seeing an expert although when there's so much swelling they might struggle to actually see what's happened to start with so you might have to wait a little bit but ultimately we want to prevent an ankle problem in the first place so that means doing some proprioceptive work so standing on single leg and doing some movements maybe even on a wobble cushion and also just strengthening the foot in different motions using a theraband the calf strain or tear is another one of those very frustrating but very common injuries when it comes to running and it's often felt in the muscle belly the fleshy part of the back of your calf in the gastrocnemius or sometimes it can be further down towards the achilles in your soleus muscle and it tends to appear if you've been doing quite a lot of mileage that you've maybe increased a little bit too quickly or you've done a really hard session on top of somebody so your body's under strain sometimes it can be a change of footwear that triggers it or it could even be running on uneven terrain i personally had it earlier this year and that was a result of increasing my mileage at quite a sort of sudden rate and not doing any strength conditioning to go with it i learnt the hard way and you'll normally feel it when you contract the calf but also if you're trying to elongate the muscle [Music] if there's some notable swelling in the area it's a good idea to do some intermittent icing on it but other than that really you're going to have to rest and for a mild strain you should be okay to start running again in a few days but obviously make sure it feels fine if you've got a bit more of a tear then you're going to need weeks maybe even months i'm afraid and i would recommend getting some professional help to help improve and speed up that recovery process and i found for mine i got to a stage where it's pretty much heal but i had a bit of scar tissue and as many foam rolling i did i couldn't get to the bottom and i just needed some needles in there so sometimes just a couple of trips to the physio can really make quite a difference and if you are susceptible to getting calf problems i'd recommend doing plenty of stretching and strengthening around the area but also addressing your footwear and maybe going for something that's got a slightly bigger heel toe drop [Music] oh the groin strain yep giggles aside it's one of those very annoying injuries and it can be picked up from running it's basically when you've overworked or strained the adductor muscles which are those muscles that run down the inside of your thigh in team sports it's a really common injury because you're constantly changing direction and things such as football when it comes to running it isn't normally too serious but it can take quite a while to heal so prevention is obviously better than cure and this is where you need to make sure that all of your muscles are firing correctly especially your glutes because if all the muscles around your hips aren't quite working in sync it could be putting extra strain on those abductor muscles and then you've got the infamous runner's knee and this can be general pain around the knee but it's usually referring to patellar tendonitis which is an inflammation of the patella tendon so the tendons both below and above your kneecap that basically hold it in place and make sure it tracks in the right direction and this can get aggravated from a lot of running downhill doing some heavy squats or even walking up and down stairs and you might notice that it's worse if you've been sitting down for a long time or generally static it can feel a little bit stiff and even a little bit crunchy sometimes and this is usually caused by weakness and tightness in the muscles around that area even as far away as your glutes yes your glutes basically affect everything don't they but closer to your knee your vmo your vastus medialis oblique muscle is quite a key one here it's that really small muscle that sits just above and inside of your kneecap and it can be a little bit lazy to activate so if you are experiencing runners knee type symptoms or pains you need to work on flexibility and also activation of those muscles around the area as well as i'm afraid backing your fuel running for a while yep you guessed it but when you do start to return to running injury-free just make sure you build it in gradually achilles tendinopathy is an aggravation to that achilles tendon it's one of those injuries that can plague runners for years and if it's left ignored it can actually lead to long-term problems so the achilles tendon attaches the gastrocnemius and the soleus those two big calf muscles into the heel and when it's put under too much stress it can become irritated which can then lead it to being inflamed and in the long term it could actually become thickened it often comes about from a lot of hill running maybe some speed work and also inadequate shoes that don't offer that enough support to the area and it's a tricky one to treat initially when you've got an acute issue of it you want to ice it to reduce that inflammation but then in the long term it's actually about strengthening the tendons so you'll need to work on exercising the calves and the tendons together and calf raises are usually great for that plantar fasciitis is an over stressing of the tissues or the fascia that run underneath the foot and connect all of those muscles into the bone it can be quite a dull pain or it could be a more acute pain some people feel it in the heel it's a slightly odd sensation or it's more general in that arch area another sign is to have excruciating or more significant pain in the mornings when you get up and you try and walk on your feet because the fascia is naturally tightened overnight and as you try and stretch it it can be really uncomfortable so initially you want to reduce that inflammation that swelling and ice of course comes in handy but here you can be a little bit more specific and actually freeze a small water bottle and then you can roll your foot over that and that's really quite nice and relieving and once you've got past that acute stage and you want to just try to stretch out that tissue a golf ball is brilliant for that shin splints yes it's another one i've experienced and it's another very common injury especially among new runners who suddenly increase their mileage and it's usually a pain that's felt on the inside lower third of your shin and it can be a bit of a throbbing or aching in that area and it's usually very sensitive to touch it's basically a result of the muscles overworking and pulling on the fascia which attaches them to the bone so if you kind of think it's a basically a constant tugging on that bone that isn't used to that action so ice is a good initial treatment here so just reduce the inflammation that's come out as a result of that and then you need to take a little bit of rest and it's very much about building up your running very gradually that's what i had to do when i first started running i kept killing shin splints but you just got to take it back to basics and let your body adapt as well as doing some strengthening exercises around the ankle and making sure you've got a nice efficient gate also do address your trainers you want to have a nice supportive shoe and maybe a bit more cushioning than you're used to and you can even start off by running on a softer surface such as grass before you really get your body used to running and then you can progress that onto running on harder surfaces and then we've got it band syndrome which quite often presents itself as lateral knee pain so pain just sort of above and outside of the knee on the bottom of that it band and then even sometimes you can feel it at the hip and it's again another one of those overused injuries that results in inflammation at that area and it can be a really nasty one that can sideline runners for weeks at a time it comes about quite often from repeatedly running downhill maybe if you're running on a camber or doing a track and always running in one direction worn out shoes can contribute to it as well and poor running form which again you guessed it relates back to weak glutes so it's one you really want to try and avoid and for that you need to obviously activate all the muscles around the hip but when you do have it you can start to work on some massage in that area to try and relieve the ite band but it's one of those sort of open to interpretation because some research says you can't do anything to the fascia in that area others say you can so it's about working out what works for you but often relieving or releasing those muscles that then feed into the it band can also help i do hope this hasn't put you off running we're just trying to help you avoid these potential injuries and if you are unlucky enough to get some sort of niggle that we've covered you at least know how to deal with it anyway i hope you guys have enjoyed this give us a like and do remember you can follow us on our social media channels as well

Channel: Global Triathlon Network

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Keywords: ankle, ankle sprain, ligaments, tendon, swollen, icing, injurry, prevent, stregthen, calf, calve, calf strain, muscle, foam roll, physio, massage, footwear, groin strain, groin, hips, glutes, flexibility, achilles, plantar faciitis, GTN, Global Triathlon Network, triathlon, Triathlon (Sport), tri, ironman, Sports, swimbikerun, triathlon training, triathlon skills, iron man, tri bike, triathlete, swimming, cycling, running, training, skills, coaching, Ꮯ, 4035, Ꮴ, Ꮽ, Ᏸ, ψ, Ս, К, Ց, ፕ19

Id: eakmeWlzlhs

Length: 10min 37sec (637 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 23 2020