When Should You Sound the Alarm?
How quickly into an injury should you seek help + more
There is a really good chance that you are going to get injured while you are training for a race.
Unfortunately, it's just something that runners have to go through. It's like eating BBQ chicken - you're loving it when you're doing it, but hate it when it spills and stains your shirt.
As a runner, we are asking a lot from our body and it just breaks down if we don't take care of it.
I mean, here I am, staring down my third straight July with a running injury. You would think that even the running coach would have some of the answers that would keep him healthy...
But I don't have all the answers. And I don't have all the reasons why we get hurt.
I do know that most of the time I get hurt because I ramp up mileage too quickly or I fail to take care of the rehab/prehab that I know I should be doing.
So in today's post, I'm going to chat with you about why we get injured and what we can do to stay healthy, plus, how quickly we should jump to get treated when we do come down with an injury.
Why We Get Injured
We *usually* get injured because of muscle imbalances. That's when one set of muscles is stronger (or weaker) than others. Think about hamstrings - if your left one is stronger, it will likely pull on your hips and your right one (the weaker one) won't be able to pull at the same strength. You'll compensate until the right hamstring can't cope any longer and then whammy, you are out because your hamstring got so tired it failed to work properly.
Insert any muscle group and you can see that a weaker muscle will always have to work harder to do the same amount of work. At some point, it's going to get tired and stop working. This is when you feel the pain and require time off.
How We Can Stay Healthy
You can either train at such a low volume that you never break down OR you can strength train and focus on a full-body workout that allows your body adequate stress so that it adapts and grows.
Part of the full-body work that helps us stay healthy is doing prehab work (work done to prevent injuries) on problem areas. For me, that's my lower legs. For you, it might be your hip flexors or your core.
How Quickly To Treat Injuries
Once you're already injured, the best plan of action is to stop running and start cross-training. Keep in mind that even if you do switch to cross training there might not be enough rest to allow your body to recover.
While you are taking time away from running, you'll want to consider getting evaluated. That might be from a chiropractor, an active-release therapist, acupuncture, or physical therapy.
Right now, for my hamstring, I've done acupuncture and active release and for my calf, I've done active release. In the upcoming days/weeks, I'll be adding PT to my plan to help get me back on the right track.
What works for me may not work for you, but it's worth a try and definitely worth doing as soon as possible.
New Blog Post Alert:
The Ultimate Guide to Breaking 22 Minutes in the 5k
Have questions? Reply to the email and I’ll get back to you.
If you liked reading this post, give it a like or a share. [It really boosts my fragile self-esteem]
Want to support my writing and don’t know how to help? Share this post!
Friday’s Action Plan
If you can’t take care of minor running injuries, they’ll quickly escalate to bigger problems. Do your prehab exercises as insurance!
What Has My Attention:
Quote of the Week:
The hardest moments in life are usually the ones that teach you the most valuable lessons.
Thanks for reading until the end. You can certainly get a hold of me in any number of ways, but if you have a comment about this post, click below.
You can find me on social media or check out my most popular links including using me as your running coach.
Did you really just love this post? Awesome and thank you. Go ahead and share it!
