Top 3 Injury Prevention Tips for Runners

Kids please welcome Igor to the blog!  He’s a personal trainer talking about something near and dear to my heart: injury prevention. Enjoy!

You’re a passionate, devoted runner. You love running, and it feels good. But when you’re talking to other runners, they always seem to be recovering from some injury. Whether it’s shin splits or hamstring strains, lower back pain or Achilles tendon issues. And you don’t want to be one of “those” runners.

In my practice as both a personal trainer and a speaker (I speak to groups of runners), I use 3 very potent strategies to help runners prevent injuries. Without further ado, here they are:

Strength training has so many benefits for runners beyond injury prevention, that there’s no reason not to do it. Imagine I told you to jump on one leg 2500 times straight. You’d think I was crazy, right? Well, that’s more or less what you are doing when you are running 5K. One mistake runners make is they run to get fit. That’s completely backwards. Given the demands of running, you need to get fit to run.

Strength training effectively prepares your muscles, tendons and ligaments for running. Not only that, but it also raises your ability to tolerate impact. Of course, you are a runner, so you don’t need to train like a bodybuilder. You should really only use 3-5 major exercises, twice per week, with weights that you can do for 5-8 repetitions.

I talk in greater detail about both the injury preventing and performance enhancing aspects of strength training in an article I wrote, titled “Endurance Training: The Missing Element”.

Fortunately, these days when I see a runner for the first time and ask what they are doing for injury prevention, many of them say “foam rolling.” That’s fantastic, because for very little time and money, you are doing a world of good for injury prevention.

A foam roller is a long dense, cylindrical piece of foam (as the name implies). It’s kind of like a self-massager. Although foam rolling doesn’t feel good while you’re doing it (like deep tissue massage), your knees, hips and lower back will really thank you.

Foam rolling helps you break up scar tissue in various areas of your lower body, so it keeps your muscles, tendons and ligaments nice and supple.If you’re rolling your IT band (the side of your thigh), take at least 30 seconds to work your way from your hip to your knee. Yeah, it should be that slow.

Lastly, there is corrective training. What is it? Corrective exercises are very specific stretches and strengthening drills that wake up sleeping muscles, and relax overly tense muscles.

Unlike strength training exercises, these are more “awareness” exercises. It doesn’t feel like you’re working hard, and in the traditional sense of the word, you aren’t. You won’t feel a muscle burn or heavy exertion, but you do need to concentrate on getting the right muscles to activate. Here is a very common example: in a lot of runners (especially female runners), they have weak gluteus medius. That’s one of the muscles of the butt. That causes the knee to slightly cave inwards each time you take a step. Over one step, it’s no big deal, but keep it up over several weeks, months or years, and you’re looking at an MCL tear. Not fun. Especially considering it could have been prevented in a few weeks with a couple simple exercises.

Everyone is different, so different people present with different imbalances. As such, there’s really no one-size-fits-all corrective program. Rather, it should be based on a thorough assessment with a qualified professional to determine which exercises are most appropriate for your body.

Igor Klibanov was selected as one of the top 5 personal trainers in Toronto by the Metro News newspaper. He is the author of “Unlimited Progress: How You Can Unlock Your Body’s Potential.” He is a self described information junkie, and loves to study and educate himself on all aspects of fitness and nutrition.