Archive for the ‘Running Injuries’ Category

Fact: forty-two percent of all injuries from overuse affect the knee joint, and runner’s knee (a.k.a. patellofemoral pain syndrome or PFPS), is the most common injury among runners.

PFPS can effect both knees, though more commonly it is more painful in one knee. According to the British Journal of Sports Medicine PFPS hinders more young and active people, and twice as many women as men. This is most likely because women tend to have wider hips, resulting in a greater angling of the thighbone to the knee, which puts the knee cap under more stress. The symptoms of PFPS are caused by the irregular tracking of the patella (kneecap) in the femoral groove.

What are the common symptoms of PFPS?

The most common complaint of those suffering with PFPS is tenderness behind and around the knee. Some also experience pain on the posterior side of the knee capsule as well. Instability and cracking could also be signs of PFPS. Although symptoms will be different in each case, running on hills and uneven surfaces often aggravates PFPS symptoms.

What are possible causes of PFPS?

Determining a single cause of your knee pain can be quite difficult. A good approach to eliminating your pain is having your knee assessed by a physical therapist. Anterior knee pain could be a biomechanical problem. Biomechanical issues that may be causing your pain include: excessive internal rotation of your hip, your knee cap may sit too high or too low in its groove, worn cartilage in the knee joint which reduces shock absorption, high arches of the feet providing less cushioning and flat feet, or knees that turn in or out excessively can pull the patella sideways. There could also be muscular issues contributing to your PFPS. Tight hamstrings and calf muscles, in particular, can put excessive pressures on the knee. Weak quadriceps muscles can also cause the patella to track out of alignment, creating painful friction and rubbing.

What can I do to help with PFPS?

A good physical therapist can perform a thorough assessment and determine what factors could be contributing to your knee pain. They would also evaluate your running stride while running on a treadmill to determine if there are any problems with your running technique and gait which may be the culprit of your pain. Treatment will likely consist of exercises to focus on correcting existing muscle imbalances and improving strength in weak muscles. You will also perform a flexibility program for the hamstrings, calves and hip flexors, and education on proper footwear and referral for orthotics to correct your foot positioning, if necessary. The rule is if your feet have good form, your knees will follow.

Some smart ways to prevent PFPS is to try running on softer surfaces like grass or trails. Also, don’t do too much. Increasing your weekly mileage more than ten percent each week is too much. And lastly, running on hills can be good for your heart but hard on your knees; make sure to introduce a hill routine slowly! For the best advice contact a good physical therapist who can analyze your running gait and provide strengthening exercises to prevent future pain in your knees.

Biomechanical assessment

Running with an injury or over-training? Often it is best to go back to basics

Injuries can affect us all regardless of age, sex or ability. But can we manage or limit the number of times we get injured? We can by going back to basics.

But we are not talking about fitness levels and stretching. Instead we mean back to biomechanics.

By assessing, on a regular basis, your biomechanics you can help eliminate and prevent a number of injuries and problems that athletes suffer from. The body compensating for weak links can cause restriction that in turn can cause pain and injury.

Calf and hamstring injuries are commonly caused by a tight sciatic nerve. The muscles provide a protective spasm to the nerve during locomotion and if stretched or loaded sufficiently the muscles can spasm enough to cause themselves to tear – or cramp up – which can feel like a tear. By mobilising the nerve it releases tension in the muscles and reduces the likelihood of this event.

? Tight calves
TIGHT calves can cause over pronation. The dorsi-flexion (moving the ankle upwards) is not available from the ankle joint due to the tight calves, so it has to come from the sub talar joint. It comes as part of the pronation mechanism though and so increases the amount of pronation as well. This causes shin related injuries as well as knee and Achilles problems.

Remember that tight calves are often from a tight sciatic nerve, so by mobilising the nerve, we can help with preventing and normalise these injuries.

The effects our biomechanics have on our body and the vicious circle of injury and pain it can cause is shown again when discussing your hips and pelvis which are so important to our running but generally overlooked until the athlete is in severe pain or in fact injured.

? Rotated pelvis
A ROTATED pelvis can go unnoticed for many years until the compensations start to cause problems. Typically a leg length discrepancy (LLD) can result from a rotated pelvis and the leg must compensate for this. It?ll either flatten the foot (pronate it), bend the knee more, or drop the hip more. Pronation will increase the load on the leg (see ?Tight calves? section), and dropping the hip will increase the the spasm to the glutes / piriformis ?prophylactically?, in other words preventatively, (and also if necessary), then we are helping to reduce all of the above.

? Assess yourself
AS a result of one of the largest studies in biomechanics by Galileo Health and distributed by HumanLab Sports we can all benefit from assessing our biomechanics, in the comfort of our own home. You do not need to be a clinician as they have developed a CD ROM software program that helps you assess yourself with the software prescribing the exercises needed to remove the problems and in turn prevent or normalise the body from developing them in the future.

As part of the program is injury prevention the CD takes you through a series of core stability work educating you on how to engage your core and to engage it while doing peripheral movements, so it becomes second nature to you when running.

It finishes off with the final section on the trunk and torso exercises.

? Benefits of biomechanics
SOME athletes out there might not feel the need to help prevent a problem they don?t feel they have. So let?s look briefly at some of the other benefits biomechanics has on your performance. A tight sciatic nerve or tight piriformis (hip) can affect your stride length, your knee drive and your power output.

A tight sciatic nerve can affect your quadriceps output by as much as 15 per cent. The effect of biomechanics for the professional athlete and the novice for injury prevention or performance is a must have tool. It will help you prevent injuries, enjoy your running and help with your performance.

The program used in helping address any issues you may have now or in the future is worth having. But it doesn?t stop there.

It can be used as a training guide to indicate that you may be over-training or that a new technique or training plan is causing you problems.

GO AND take a look at the website www.humanlabsports.com and see what you think. The CD-ROM is priced at only $39.10

Running is a wonderful form of cardiovascular exercise; unfortunately it has gained a reputation for causing injury. This is unfair, in my opinion, and in this article how to avoid common running injuries in 3 easy steps, I will show you how to avoid some of the most common ones. The first common problem that I see in runners that can cause everything from muscle strains to tears is simply lack of a proper warm-up. While this may not seem so bad, after all most people might think, "Well in five minutes I’ve worked up a sweat so it can’t be all bad." While this may be true a cold and tight muscle is more apt to be injured be it a simple, pull, strain, or in the worse case and tear.

But the worst thing a lack of a proper warm-up does simply add wear and tear on the body, the body is not warm and ready to go so each time you push it to the limit by not warming up I feel you are just that much closer to an injury. Think of it this way if you keep stretching out a rubber over and over sooner or later it is going to break, but not just from that last stretch, it was all those previous stretches that combined to do it. One day you’ll be running and out of the blew bam, an injury will happen, most people will put it off to well it was just my time, but what they forget is all those times they were in a hurry and ran without a warm-up. A warm up doesn’t have to be much, walk first of 5-10 minutes progressively getting faster and faster until you’re doing a light jog and then slowly and I mean slowly over the coarse of another 10 minutes pick up your pace until you are running at the pace you want to. The second common thing that I see runners do all the time, which over time can cause injuries is not stretching.

Again just like with warm ups, you think, well I’m running late so I’ll just skip stretching JUST this once and well we all know what happens, something comes up again and again, and well you get the idea. Stretching out your hamstrings, calf muscles, lower back, upper back, abs, and just about any other muscle you find that is tight after a run will only take 10 minutes, yet as with warm-ups, over time you’ll see less soreness, less of those nagging injuries and I’ll bet that you’re running will improve. Now if you’re wondering why I didn’t include the thighs in the list of muscles to stretch, it is simply because most peoples thighs maintain an adequate level of flexibility, however by all means if your thighs are tight by all means stretch them out. An excellent book that can be found at most libraries is called STRECTHING by Bob Anderson. With this book you’ll have all the stretches you could possibly want. Last but definitely not least is the post workout meal. If you are wondering why I’ve included nutrition in an article about injuries, well a muscle that is not fully recovered/sore is more apt to be injured and there is no better time to refuel your body than after a hard run. I’m glad that protein has come back into favor as of late, because before running was all about carbohydrates, and they are great, especially if you favor good quality ones like brown rice, sweet potatoes and fruit. However, protein is vital for muscle growth and repair, so if you don’t have enough you are not going to recover as well/if at all, as you should. A great post workout drink is called SURGE and it is made by biotest. However if you can’t afford it or simply want something more basic go out and grab some whey protein isolate and mix it with some juice, or you could simply have a banana or two with your shake.

I know you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results you will see (faster recovery, better runs) from simply just adding a post workout protein and carb meal after your runs. If you’re wondering how soon you should have your shake after your run, if you can get your shake or whey isolate and bananas in within 30 minutes of your run you’ll be fine. I hope you’ve enjoyed, how to avoid common running injuries in 3 easy steps, and I wish you all the best in your running.

If you liked the tips in this article you will be able to find out even more info that will help your running by going here http://tinyurl.com/mt2mc

About the Author

The fitness guy has been involved in health and fitness for over 20 years For more info please visit: http://tinyurl.com/mt2mc

Running shoes are ideal for many people, even those that do not spend a lot of time running. These shoes are ideal for several reasons. But, when you go to purchase them, make sure that you choose the right ones for your needs. If you do not, you may be allowing yourself to be at risk for injury. This means that you can often find yourself struggling with ankle injuries, sore feet and even worse situations. Choosing the right running shoes is not necessarily difficult though.

What To Look For

There are several things that you should look for when choosing running shoes either for you or for your child.

* Support is the most important factor in the shoe. Just look at it. Does it provide the right amount of support for the arch of your foot? Too much and the arch will hurt as soon as you step into it. Too little and the arch of your foot will be flattened while running or walking and cause pain throughout the foot and up the leg. This is a very bad thing. Support is essential for long periods of standing and walking.

* Shock absorption is probably something that you do not think about when it comes to your shoes, but it too is quite important. You need to insure that the amount of shock that your foot, ankle, hips and back get, especially when running is minimal. When you insure that the foot is getting the right amount of shock protection, you are sure to find there are many benefits to your overall health. The running shoes you choose should absorb shock.

* Comfort is also important. You will need a pair of shoes that you can easily walk around in for several hours. You should have shoes that are easy to wear and well fitting. If they are not comfortable, then you will feel pain after wearing them for extended periods of time.

All of these things are essential when choosing running shoes. In most cases, individuals will find that there are many benefits to having the right pair of shoes to wear on their feet. Not only to do their job in protecting the feet, but they also help to support the ankle, the knees and all the way up your body. Running shoes are ideal for long or short amounts of running and just for supportive shoes as well.

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About the Author

John White, the webmaster of kiwishoes.com, is a part of the Sharing Information Group that provides useful information to the public through the syndication of free articles.

This is only a test Post for this blog.  I needed to kick off my Jogging Tip blog with something so here it is.  A bland post about nothing.  Needed though for me to practice talking about running and jogging.