Running Injury Tips: Part Two

This week I am going to repeat the tips from last week. However we will switch to using examples of some other lower extremity injuries suffered by runners.

I recently read some advice on-line related to specific running injuries. In almost every case the commentary started out with the suggestion to begin taking ibuprofen, icing, and resting, and then following that up with a program of stretching and strengthening exercises. While all of that can certainly help, it is not a substitute for learning to improve what we are doing.

The common assumption is that the problem is in the tissues, or in the joints, but I want to show that the real problem is not that at all. Why will a running injury often come right back after rest? The answer is that learning occurs in the brain, not the muscles, or joints. The way we do things is the real problem. The human nervous system is capable of a great deal of learning. When we are injured the brain goes into protection mode. We often maintain movement patterns designed to protect us long after the need to protect is gone. But the brain always wants to organize our actions in the most pleasant, strong, efficient, and pain free way possible. That is why we can improve by paying attention to the little things.

Running injury tip # 1

Try running by feel, instead of just thinking in terms of technique. Pay attention to what you are doing and how the overall body pattern feels. Shift your attention back and forth between the parts and the whole. This will have at least two benefits. If you are training or running in a race remember, you can always change something, you are not just a creature of habit. There is not just one way to do things. Some little change or change in emphasis can make all the difference. A problem that is beginning to develop can end up not being a problem with a slight shift. The second reason to run with awareness of the overall balance and feel of what you are doing is that if you do have a problem, and if it appears that you are courting an injury after you are done running or on the next day, then you have filed away a memory of the exact body pattern that you used the day before. That is a huge clue about how to shift your emphasis. If you are stressed in a particular area you can remember exactly how you produced this discomfort. So tip # 1 is about developing a new kind of awareness of the feeling of the details of what you are doing.

Running injury tip #2

Continue to improve your overall awareness of, alignment and form. Simply put the better your overall skill level becomes the stronger and more injury proof you will be. Notice I have used the words skill and awareness rather than technique and form. You might be able to recite elements of good form but we really want to go beyond that and experience good form, so that we “know” what we are doing and can feel it too.

Applying this to real and specific injuries:
This time let’s talk more about lower extremity injuries.

Here is a picture of an extreme heel strike. This is a topic that has been discussed a lot in the last couple of years, and I have picked an extreme example here. It is obvious that there is tension in the anterior muscles of the shin. These are the muscles that are used to hold the foot in this position with the front of the foot pulled up before the foot lands. This is extra muscular tension and it is not necessary to hold the foot this way in order to run. Now let’s look at pictures of the other extreme. These pictures are not discussed as often.



The runners in the pictures above are also using excess muscular energy to run. Have you ever seen runners who stay on the balls of their feet and never quite bring their heels to touch the ground at the mid-stance phase of running? This kind of running can be very hard on the Achilles, and calf musculature, as well as an inefficient overall use of energy. Now we can look at two short video clips.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsUfo_jHQ60




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB4j76D1rx8

In these two video clips above notice the lack extra tension in the lower leg. There is no excessive dorsi- flexion (the front of the foot held up prior to ground contact) and there is no attempt to stay on the balls of the feet. Good skeletal support is used rather than excessive muscular tension. In the second video clip don’t focus your attention on whether there is a forefoot or heel strike but rather on the fact that the whole foot is involved, the outside of the foot, the entire center of the foot and the inside of the foot. If you look carefully you can see the arch collapse since you are watching in super slow motion. The design of the body is being used without the hindrance of extra effort.

There are a whole host of lower extremity injuries that can crop up and I have not attempted to address them all. There is much that you can’t see in the still pictures. They are for illustration only. For instance you can’t see how smoothly each of these heel striking runners moves over their foot strike. But the real point is that we can over emphasize or learn to de-emphasize parts of our stride. To learn, to improve and to move on to something that is more appropriate for our own running is possible. The pictures we have used emphasized the lower extremities, but change always involves re organizing the entire pattern. Foot strike, by itself is overemphasized.

Keep addressing overall form, and shift your attention between the details and the overall feeling of the movement.

All of these pictures combine running injury tips # 1 and #2. They show concepts combined with real world skill through increased sensitivity and awareness.

I hope this article has been fun and useful. Enjoy! But remember, it you need help with specific injuries, I would be glad to help. If you want to learn at a deeper level and are committed to doing the work to improve, then Transcendent Running lessons are for you. To learn more click here.

To get the free e-book, The Runners Body/Mind click here.
Thanks and take care - Scott