Which running injuries can you RUN THROUGH?

hey there team this is part 2 of a Q&A session that I'm doing with Anna here from the running channel we've just finished the first part of our Q&A over on the running channel which I'd suggest you guys go and have a look at from the link down in the description we are answering questions that have come in about all things running rehab so hopefully if you've got any particular issues from a mountain training point of view or perhaps a train of your first 5k or anything in between then perhaps in this Q&A will answer some of those burning issues so I'm gonna be the interviewers they will click on with the next question so that is how do I know if I can run through an injury ok so that's that's a really good one because there are some injuries which us as runners suffer with which you can just kind of push on through and especially if you've got a race coming up and you know that race date isn't gonna get any further away you know you'd alas you want to do is to say right I'm going to have to stop I'm going to have to just hold on for two weeks before I get back into my running because you can literally feel every second taking away where you're not training if you can run through then on the understanding that it's probably not ideal there are some of those injuries which it won't get any worse it'd just be a case of managing the symptoms whereas there are other injuries which if you try and run through it you're just gonna make it worse and worse and worse if we're talking about something like shin splints for example medial tibial stress syndrome that can start out with a little kind of annoying painful stress response in your tibia and can end out with a full-on stress fracture and that's not something anybody needs and obviously you're gonna stop running at that point but you would have not had to do that if you just stopped running for a shorter period upfront when you died dented by the problem so the question is which of these injuries which is which and how do you know so first and foremost as I find myself saying a lot if you are dealing with any of these injuries any niggles any any injury run related get yourself to a physio getting down proper look because again taking advice online it's a great place to kind of educate yourself a little bit more understand what you're dealing with but if you don't know what you're dealing with information online isn't going to help you diagnose that so actually getting someone to take a proper look is the only way forward in that respect but once you know you're dealing with if we've got something like for example I'm a reactive Achilles tendinopathy which you know it follows a very strict pattern of yeah it's annoying it's a bit painful when I start to run it gets up to it maybe a 3 out of 10 in terms of discomfort and actually if the run carries on it starts to get a little bit easier as it gets warmer but then the next morning off that's that's really part and comfortable those first few steps out of bed and that's pattern is reproducible it's very predictable and it isn't getting any worse over time that's something you can manage perhaps you might thing didn't need to go from for all runs per week to 3 runs per week to give it time to work through its kind of response to being loaded but you should be able to keep going through to the point where you're able to get your race under the belt and then probably at that point that's why you need to ask yourself the honest question and say let's do I need to take a bit of time off here and allow that to subside properly whereas if you've got an injury which is reacting slightly different to that instead of it getting to a certain point and having a very predictable next morning reaction or later in the day reaction that doesn't get any worse it instead gets to a point where let's say you've done a midweek 10k and the next morning you say while that feels like I've done a 3 out of 10 it's annoying it's there but it's subside the next Wednesday you'd do another midweek 10k and the next morning you wake them all that's more than 5 or 6 out of 10 that's that's getting a bit worse and the next week is worse still that's a pattern where you can see it's not improving if anything it's getting worse and that means that you're in a position where you're going to have to at some point call a halt and say look I need to I need to rest this here so the next question for you what can I do about hamstrung issues okay so when it comes to hamstring issues us as endurance runners have a very different will usually have very different experiences than perhaps a sprinter would have so typically we can probably all picture this we've probably seen it on TV or or live you guys sprint up batting down the straights or perhaps you've got a football or rugby player on the wing sprinting down the wing and all of a sudden it's all kind of snipers hit them from the stands and they're grabbing the back of their fire they're hobbling around they've they've torn a hamstring okay so again incredibly painful and we're talking in those two instances kind of mid belly hammer you've torn the muscle now that's one thing what we experienced as business runners usually it's very different those those muscular tears usually come in response to the fact those athletes are usually decelerating it's usually from a point where they've hit max speeds they're running at Matt and hope that kind of a max velocity they're running at and it's actually the deceleration of a lower leg coming out in front of them as they're sprinting that causes the the tear in the hamstring but the point is that they're sprinting they're moving fast big powerful movements with us at distance runners it's not we don't move that quickly you don't move fast enough realistically to have a full-blown hamstring strain or hamstring 10 instead what we tend to suffer with more so is either high hamstring tendinopathy your props might have depended on think whatever you want to call it so pain and I'm up around the butt cheek region cuz we're where the sit bones are the bones that you find it off are sitting down on when you're on a jet the tendon that attaches into there I haven't been tended to conjoin tendon that to those sit bones because sometimes become become aggravated or we sometimes feel posterior thigh pain so we get in the hamstring region the back of the thigh masquerading as a hamstring issue so it's it's more so the sciatic nerve bearing that incident so perhaps it's a lower back issue perhaps the performance issue or something like that it's more neural neural hamstring pain if you like rather than vascular hamstring pain if we talk more so about the former this we'll talk more so about high hamstring tendinopathy if you're dealing with that one of the issues that I see again beginning again is that people feel like it's and this is quite intuitive it feels like it's an issue that's they're needing a stretch it feels like my hamstrings really uncomfortable let me try and stretch it that'll make it feel better the problem with the injury itself is that if we start stretching the hamstrings and putting more strain through the tendon not only putting more strain for the tendon but to get a hamstring stretch being ourselves up into hip flexion we're starting to actually put compression on the tendon because it gets compressed against the bone that it attaches to so one thing tenants don't like is compression under tents our load so you end up actually starting to potentially aggravate the tendon rather than help at all so what you can actually do from a high hamstring tendinopathy point of view is start to think a little bit more about the loading aspect of what we need to do to start strengthening both strengthening the muscle but also start kicking off the healing process in the hamstring tendon itself like any tender loading is a big part of that it's a big part of what's required to begin the healing process so working through exercises isometric exercises so static old exercises which don't bring you into hip flexion so things like glute bridges or hamstring bridges so our glute bridge with a straighter leg if you like are really really effective exercises to start putting those with a hamstring in a position that it's not going to get aggravated to help start to reignite that healing process now those again just like other tendon issues it's actually okay if uncomfortable during the exercise to start working through that discomfort is it's actually the the the strain we're trying to put on the tendon there which will help encourage it to start to start healing so now we're moving on to hips and a question about how to make hips stronger so such an important area for us runners we want a lot of the big powerful movements that push us forwards as we're running to come from the hips particularly coming from there yet we talk about all the time the GUP complex and big powerful butt muscles now there are various things you can do obviously to help strengthen that area and I mentioned in the Q&A that we did over on the running channel that's actually starting to get you to the German and at the right time in your running year perhaps go and start experimenting with things like squats and deadlifts it's certainly part of that big picture but on a more practical level and more well you have more doable level resistance bands are a fantastic tool there are all sorts of resources on this channel but also around YouTube that you can go and look at in terms of tutorial videos when it comes to let's say glute strengthening exercises with resistance bands it's a it's a really simple way of just starting to incorporate a bit of resistance work which is more challenging than just bodyweight work into your regular routine so I highly recommend starting to incorporate some resistance band exercises but also we need to look at what might be inhibiting the your ability to use the important muscles build strength from the important muscles in the first place so again mentioned it in a previous Q&A but if you spend a lot of time sat down and you find yourself very tight through your hip flexors it may be the tension through your hip flexor the restriction through in the front of the hip that stops you actually be able to use those important muscles around the back of the hip those glutes so a lot of time spent doing various different hip mobility exercises will actually help your ability to then start to build strength over time so really interesting question that's come in from someone who's started running and is notice that their ankles are cracking more and wants to know if that's something that they should be worried about yeah so cracking ankles cracking knees it's definitely something that a lot of us runners notice about our bodies as we start getting into our training but not just runners yeah a lot of people just general ordinary folk who don't run also have their fairly noisy knees fairly noisy ankles and my best piece of advice in this respect and most simple piece of advice is that as long as there's no pain there I wouldn't be overly concerned and when we're talking about ankles we need to think about the muscles and tendons that that influence the ankle and kind of particularly tendons that overlay the ankle when talking about knees we think about the same thing but in regards for the knee I like to take those cracks creaks crunches whatever the noises are as much as they're not particularly pleasant noises as long as there's no pain just take them as a bit of a hint that potentially there might be a bit of maintenance work that we could do on ourselves to start helping ourselves a little bit more so if it's cracking ankles then perhaps muscles around the calf complex whether it's hilarious whether it's the calf that saw the big calf muscle we recognize gas rock whether it is even the peroneal muscles perhaps so a bit tight perhaps as you said it's kind of beginner runner getting into running those muscles and start to get a bit time for the new demands of running so a bit of stretching for the foam rolling foam rolling might be less pleasant than the stretching but it certainly could help in terms of just start to make a difference to those and surfing noise with you here same for those knees if those knees are getting a bit noisy then it might be the quality when I spend a bit more time stretching so you covered most areas of muscle groups that we use as runners and the next one is about thighs and why do my thighs hurt the day after a long run or race and how can I stop that from happening I think a lot of us would have felt that definitely whether it's a long run I mean for me it's more speed work if I do a hard in full session having not really done much speed work recently my legs usually in particular my thighs know about it later in the day it's you've got to think of it as kind of sign of exertion so in the question it says after a long run or after a race you really pushed yourself particularly pushing yourself in terms of duration or let's say race wise it's its duration as perhaps I passed the pacing you would have done then it's just another example of where around our body we gonna end up getting Dom's so delayed onset muscle soreness there are some imbalances that some runners struggle with that might might start to exacerbate this a little bit so you get some runners who are a little bit more quad dominant or hip flexor dominant let's say more anteriorly dominant in the way they move for anterior chain dominance in comparison to how much they use their glutes and hamstrings so their posterior chain so if you know that you're a runner who does tend to struggle a little bit more so than its normal we've a bit of soreness through your quads three on five muscles then it might be worth asking yourself the question as to whether you're doing enough strengthening work your hamstrings strengthening work for your goods to potentially try and balance out an imbalance that's there but it can also be a technique issue some runners again as I mentioned aren't quite quad dominant hip flexor dominant they run with it more of a kind of shuffling running gait which would put more stress or more demand let's say on those anterior anterior muscle groups so quads in particular so in that instance learning to pick your feet up a little bit more not to a point where it makes you run faster but just learning to pick your feet up a little bit more and start to think about exercises they potentially do before your run to start activating your glutes might actually help you share the load a little bit from a running perspective okay so the last question for our Q&A comes about lower back soreness and stiffness particularly during long runs and this is something that I've really struggled is the wrong word but certainly experienced over time for those of you who don't know I'm quite a tall guy so I've got quite a long back and and that naturally means that potentially I'm a little bit more susceptible to kind of stiff low backs and that and I think especially with rugby background and all that stuff there's some there's some long history of this that the other going on there as well so I need to look after my back so I can completely relate to anyone who's talking about stiffness with their low back and there are a few things that we can certainly do to help ourselves particularly when it comes to those long runs so we need to think about what it is that you actually start to feel when it comes to that stiffness and stiffness very specifically rather than pain you know we don't want anyone to be experiencing back pain that's a completely different thing to the muscular kind of more generalized I have a lower bank band of stiffness which what I'm talking about experiencing pain go see a physio but if we're talking about the tightness that creeps in through your lower back then really we need to think about the fact that that could be symptomatic of perhaps not quite having the core strength that is required for being out on your feet for two and a half three hours three and a half hours doing a long Sunday run it's a long time to be on your feet long time to be exercising long time to be creating a repetitive movement happen as well especially if it becomes this relatively slow which naturally your long run needs to be slowed steady but if through the nature of being a slow run you develop this slightly more let's say kind of lazy running gait rather than maintaining good upright tall posture engaging your core etc etc in fact it's it's a real parallel between the day and day out kind of times where I again feel my back it's not when I'm going off and I'm walking the dog may have utilized walk and we're out for a walk instead it's kind of when I'm giving around a shopping center and it's this kind of aimless walking and you kind of you're you suddenly find yourself holding a weird posture doing this doing that it's this kind of I guess the less the word definitely this kind of lazy movement pattern so instead there are two things that we can work on we can work on making sure in the week there is plenty of time spent doing various core strength exercises I'm a big fan of various plank variations not necessarily just your static kind of forearm plank instead throwing in lots of kind of asymmetrical movements and side planks and things like that just to generally strengthen your core and then when you're running have a think about posture have a think about not allowing yourself to slump into this kind of sticking abut out type forward tilted pelvis position which is gonna put more pressure on your low back and instead think I just gently drawing your belly button in squeezing those lower abdominal muscles only kind of one or two out of ten on an effort scale we're not talking about kind of trying to really contract everything but just enough to a point where you can feel that you're actually starting to almost draw your hips kind of up and forward a little bit more it's where we kind of sink down and back into this kind of you know back out running position that we start putting that pressure on the back and we start getting tied to the muscles outside of your lower back and in fact with those muscles in particular we mentioned I think in the qat back over on the running chalice or the beginning of this two-part Q&A we mentioned a muscle called glute meet when glute Meade isn't firing effectively not working well to stabilize the pelvis side to side we mentioned it earlier in the context and the context of ITB syndrome so when we drop to one side because gluten eat isn't doing his job to stabilize the ITB experience or strain at the same time the opposite side what we call QL quadratus lumborum muscle in the low back also has to work a lot harder to balance out the fact that the glute need isn't working hard so you end up having to always get to a point where you're fatiguing too soon through those muscles that happen to pick up a slack instead of being able to use those glutes effectively so guess what yet again it boils down to effectively using your glutes using your core of course there are lots of exercise we can do to strengthen your glutes particularly made so worth having a look at those two brilliant well that's the end of our questions so hopefully we've answered yours and if you have got any more questions leave them in the comments below because we'd love to do another one of these videos with you again soon thank you very much for answering all those questions you're welcome hope everybody found that helpful

Channel: James Dunne

Views: 13,257

Keywords: James Dunne, KineticRev, Kinetic Revolution, vlog, Running, Training, Exercise, Jogging, Marathon, the running channel, running rehab, running injuries, hamstring pain, hip strengthening, cracking ankles

Id: kQSA9yCcg4s

Length: 18min 42sec (1122 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 13 2019