Avoiding Running Injuries

There are things that you can do in your running training that will impact the chances of succumbing to injury with running. It is possible to train for years without incident if you take the proper precautions.

An injury can keep you from running for days, weeks, or even months. The impact that that can do to your fitness level can be drastic. Both the physical and mental effects of having an injury can be detrimental to your health and well being for a lot longer than it takes to recover from an injury.

So take care and you'll be running happier for longer.

Mileage

Drastic increases in your weekly mileage will increase your chances for injury. This includes jumping back to your old training routine after an extended break. The rule of thumb for this is to keep your mileage increases below 10% per month. So if you're running 10 miles one week then following week should be 11 miles and no more.

Resting

Once every 3 weeks your body could benefit from a reduction in running mileage. Rather than adding 10% to your distance remove 30%. This will give your joints and muscles time to recover.

Warm up

Take about 1 mile to warm up before you actually start running at your running pace. The time spent warming up reduces the stress on your cardio-vascular system because it takes time for your body to adjust the flow of blood to the vital muscles needed for running.

Hills and speed work

Running up hills builds strength necessary for speed work but with less stress on the body. Before you start sprinting around the track you should build up strength by doing hill work once per week for 3 or 4 weeks.

Running Fast

Running fast uses some different muscles than a jog, and increases the stresses on your joints. To improve your speed you should do speed work no more than once per week with a good warm up and cool down.

Stretching

Stretching your muscles just after you finish your run will reduce the strain on your muscles. After an intense run you should do light stretching, while after an easy run it is better to do more stretching.

Stride

Rather than increase the stride distance to run faster focus on moving your feet quicker. Lengthening your stride increases the impact to your joints and muscles. You'll see the same speed increase with less impact by maintaining your stride while improving your foot turnover rate.

Matt Warren,
Run To Lose Weight

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