How To Avoid Common Foot & Knee Injuries During Running?
In this article we'll discuss about sports medicines and injury rehabilitation because runner injuries are very commonBeing on the wrong side of our forties, both Wendy and I were aware of the wear and tear of our bodies during training for 5K and 10K races.
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Gary did his best with his physical exercises to strengthen our body muscles to cope with the rigors of running.
He had a great knowledge of sports medicines and also adjusted our training schedules whenever there was a minor injury to myself or to Wendy. But he had to recommend rehabilitation to us to get rest and regains strength to start running once again.
However, we knew that at one point of time or the other we would have to face injuries. Injuries are a part and parcel of any training schedule for running the 5K or 10K.
There can be minor injuries while running, and there can also be major injuries that require medicines and even surgeries. But if the nature of your injury is minor and it does not require any medication, RICE is ideal for you. Gary recommended his RICE therapy to me several times during his training.
For the benefit of the readers, RICE is an acronym that stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. Gary told us that we need to avoid regular exercise and training and take rest whenever we felt a sprain in our ankle or any other body part. Rest does wonder to an injured ligament. But if rest is not sufficient, he advised us to put ice pack on the affected body part for short time periods of 10-30 minutes. Just make sure to wrap a towel around the frozen peak pack to avoid direct contact with your body lest you cause ice burn. If there is swelling even after applying ice pack, you can use compression bandage to get rid of it. Last in RICE therapy is elevation that requires you to raise your knee arm, elbow, or the other body part that has been injured above the level of your heart.
However, even if after the 4 steps of RICE, swelling does not subside or the symptoms of injury become worse, it is time to go to your GP for medical treatment. He will evaluate your injury and even take X-rays to ascertain if there is any fracture or broken bone. He will give you painkillers or other NSAID’s depending upon the seriousness of your injury. He may give other treatments like massage therapy, heat therapy, physiotherapy or any other therapy that he deems fit. Rehabilitation is an important tool in the hands of doctors for treatment of sports injuries. This aims to bring the injured body part to regular movement by introducing gradual movement and exercise.
Gary focused to strengthen our hamstrings to avoid tattered cartilage and bad knees. The knee is designed to work with everything working in perfect harmony, but when your muscle balance is out of whack, undue stress is placed on the joint. This is very important for long distance runner.
You should also try running with Vibram Five Fingers.
We immensely benefited by following exercises to avoid injuries
(1) We started doing Turkish get-up with 20 lb kettle-ball to train our body in a fluid, athletic manner because it hits virtually every muscle group from neck down to ankles.
(2) Standing on alternate leg with proper breathing. This is an Indian yoga position
(3) Breathing exercise for 15 minutes
(4) Strength training is very important for long distance running. Watch the video on importance of strength training for running by
With inputs from Gary, Wendy and I learned how to cope with minor injuries during our training. Finally, after 8 weeks of training, we were ready to run our first 5K race.
Both of took around 45 minutes to complete the run. But we did it!!
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Reference :
1. Sports training & Yoga exercise
2. Running Coaching, Injury Prevention, and Rehabilitation
3. A Popular Myth About Running Injuries By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS
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