keeping HS girls healthy

Most if not all running-related injuries are caused by overuse. If you're running at 180 strides per minute that is 5400 times your foot is hitting the ground per 30 minute run or 37800 times per week. Counting just the athlete's bodyweight (say 120lbs) that's 648000lbs of force per day or 4536000lbs of force per week....and this only for 30 minutes per day.

And runners wonder why they get hurt...

If they are complaining about being hurt...then stop running, take a day off. I know runners seem to be the only athlete on the planet who crawls up into a fetal position if they have to take a day off....but we forget that the body doesn't improve through our running, it improves through the rest from our running.

You can't train more than your ability to recover.

After your athletes have recovered and our running fine, then start doing some sort of resistance training. Start with bodyweight squats and lunges plus a little upperbody work (pushups and inverted rows are great bodyweight exercises for this purpose). Doesn't have to be a lot. 3 sets to failure, 60-90s rest, shouldn't take more than 20 minutes. That would be a good start for the first 6-8 weeks.

Alan

Marcs,

The best thing for you (and Alan for that matter) to do is to stop lumping them all into such big groups. Instead look at each individually and decide what is best for each. What is each specific girl complaining about, what did she (not thye) do this summer. Once you individualize it you'll find that the problems are overwhelming just individual cases of mistakes that can corrected.

Alan - having studied as much as you have, certainly you know that humans are uniquely biomechanically suited for covering long distances. We only get injured running because of our own stupidity and perpesinty for getting in the way of our own natural biomechanical efficiency. I.e we get impatient and do too much to quickly, we wear improper equipment, we over eat and the extra weight impedes our efficiency, etc.

Just about everyone gets shin splints when they start running again. Have them do toe raises and it'll go away.

next summer - tell them to get off their asses

shin splints, they are hurting, not hurt - they are not injured, their shins are sore.

imagine any other sport and the players show up out of shape ... there are countless conditioning classes in my area for soccer, football, volleyball, softball, basketball, etc. but none for cross country. coaches as a whole have set the bar so low, that they are happy when anyone shows up and they can fill out a team. this is what you get.

If I sat on my ass all summer, and was then required to actually do something, then I would be sore too. Jesus coach, WTF do you expect? Don't listen to their belly-aching, and have some nuts next year. Require that your athletes report to the first practice in some decent shape.

Drop them off at the water tower, tell them to run back to school, if they can't make it back to school in x amount of slow time - then "try harder next year".

bump

Alan you usually give decent, if somewhat untraditional advice. But this is just retarded. Explain to me how squats and lunges are going to help the muscles in the shin? And do you even realize that these girls have shin splints from a sudden INCREASE in training, not just from training? I don't have shin splints and I regularly run 110 miles a week. If I tried to go from zero to 110, what do you think would happen? And do you think it would be prevented by me doing some squats and bench presses?

Too late to piss and moan about what they didn't do over the summer.

You have to work with what you've got, and you have to take into account their background when doing so.

If they didn't train over the summer, start from the beginning, give plenty of recovery days and do some prehab drills, also some easy barefoot running on grass a couple of days per week.

Gotta start slow, just like a baby, creep, then crawl, then walk, progression is the answer.

I would start incorporating some simple core strength work 3x a week after practice. Get some resistance bands, light dumbells, and a big exercise ball and set up some stations with exercises at each. The fourth station would be for doing forward and side planks or other exercises using only their own body weight.

If they can get stronger while they are increasing mileage, it should pay off at the end of the season both in performance and in injury prevention.

Until you get the shin splints under control, you may have to cross train to attain fitness. Do something every other day or every two days, like running in the pool (you can abuse your heart rate if done right) and then gradually get them going every day or keep the Xtraining there to prevent. I know it's tough b/c the season is here, but what choice do you have. Still got track season!

If you don't think a squat does anything for the lower limbs then you've never squated before.

If you don't think increased testosterone production will help recovery then you've never lifted before.

I said, get them healthy first, then start adding in some lifting.

Alan

Yes, and I know some guys who can squat a couple hundred pounds, but guess what happens when they jump into running 30+ miles a week after doing nothing but lifting? They get shin splints. But yes by all means, let's worry about testosterone production and maxing out on squat, and never worry about teaching young runners not to be so lazy that they don't even go jog 4 times a week over the summer. Let's teach them to lift and do core 5 days a week and to fear running. Good plan, I look forward to watching all the brilliant performances this will produce.

I'm not saying that lifting isn't a valuable supplemental activity, but the way you're writing about x pounds of force causing runners to get injured, that's the type of thinking that leads to low mileage, crappy high school programs. I had a coach who thought we could swap mileage for weights, and guess what? I could bench more when I was 16 than I can now. But I can run what used to be my 2 mile pace for a half marathon. Those girls need to stretch a bit, do some exercises, and have their coach chew them out for being so goddamn lazy. And not necessarily in that order.

Apples and oranges.

Christ...

Take two groups of runners.

Group A is a bunch of girls who average 50 miles a week all summer.

Group B is a bunch of girls who average 50 miles a week all summer.

Group A ends up with a bunch of shin splints.

Group B doesn't end up with a bunch of shin splints.

Guess what Group B did? Weight train.

If a muscle is stronger it will be harder to overload. Since shin splints, like all running injuries, is caused by overuse a stronger muscle will be more resiliant.

I'm all for 100 miles a week, been there done that. I ran my marathon PR while running 100+ miles a week AND doing twice weekly resistance training. Strength training will help you recover better and maintain injury free running. I never said anything about swapping anything. Include weight training, don't replace running.

Yes, these girls are hurt because they didn't start running until July most likely taking a month or two off. That's their problem. The solution is to 1) first back off the running and heal their injuries, 2) get the running in order, get it where it needs to be, and 3) once the running is where it needs to be THEN and only THEN add resistance training.

I get tired of typing the same things over and over again. Next time I'm going to write a few articles and just link them.

Alan

give em a good hard f***ing