Running Injuries

It's All in the Legs!

No surprises - most running injuries affect the lower limb!

Very seldomly do injuries occur in isolation, often being down to a combination of a change in biomechanics, loading, and bad luck!

The key objective in running rehabilitation is not only returning you to your regular street slog, but also protecting you against future potential injury where possible.

"Strength and Power? But I thought running is about endurance!"

Evidence shows that strength and power are critical elements in injury recovery and prevention. Many common injuries are avoided, or their effects reduced, if you have strength and power in your legs and trunk.

Strength? Power? What do you mean..?

Strength is the body's ability to produce force. The stronger you are, the more force you produce, from whichever muscle you are measuring. Think strongman challenges and arm-wrestlers!

Power is the ability to change the force produced by your muscles over time - the shorter the time and the greater the change in force, the more power you are able to produce. Think javelin throwers, and sprinters, where acceleration is important.

The Economy of Running

This is a measure of your efficiency when running; ie your ability to convert the force you produce in your limbs, into forward motion at a particular speed. This is measured by the amount of oxygen you use to maintain a certain (sub-maximal) running speed.

Wasting Energy

There are many ways to waste energy during running. While running, your Centre of Gravity (CoG) is moving up and down, and side to side. The more you move your CoG up and down and side to side, the less efficient you are.

BUT: your body is not designed to manage the loads imposed during running without moving your CoG - your tissue will break down as the load will exceed your ability to adapt to it.

Balance

So it is a balance between soaking up some of the force to prevent overload, and transmitting that force into your body to permit forward motion.

Improving strength (in your muscles, bones, ligaments, cartilage etc) and power (in your muscles) gives you greater control of your CoG, and more ability to manage the running load.