foam rolling, stretching, strengthening making me MORE injured?

I almost never wear Brooks but have a pair of the Hyperion Tempos and love them. I would definitely try them out and see if it makes a difference!

I had a friend who has a similar situation where she was always injured and missed most of her college career because of it, However her most recent season she only swam and biked and had great success. running under 5:00/ 2:10 for mile/800. Proper cross training maybe a path you want to explore.

Why are you doing so much stretching when you used to be a gymnast? If anything, you're likely to be over flexible which leads to more injuries.

If I was you I'd drop all of the other stuff and just run for now. Do as much easy and steady running as you can. No harm in doing some light circuit training/strengthening but aside from that I'd drop the other stuff and see what happens.

seriously considering this. when i did almost none of it in the very beginning of my running career, i was the healthiest i’ve been. i’m just a little scared of getting rid of the foam rolling because i m scared it’ll leave me right and right stuff will cause injuries. i always feel tight, i don’t know maybe the excessive rolling is causing that though? has anyone had success with dropping stretching and foam rolling?

replace right with tight

going to do that today!

Approaching this from a different angle, how is your nutrition? First off, are you getting enough calories and second, are you getting the important nutrients. When you first started running and you were healthy, you were probably running less and your energy expenditures weren't as high/energy demands were not as great. As you began running more, energy demands increased. Did your diet keep up? Are you consuming enough protein for suoercompensation to occur or even regeneration?

I don't know this to be the issue, but you say your mechanics are good and you are being proactive. But the body cannot recover very well without the available energy. You might need more of something. Injuries are super frustrating, but if that is the case you might see these issues resolve pretty fast and get back to running your fastest pretty quickly.

Whatever the cause,good luck in identifying it, finding the solution, and running fast.

honestly, from being in this biz for 40 years, I'd say

forget the nutrition - humans are omnivores and running 30 mpw doesn't demand specialized nutrition from healthy teenagers. Don't eat much stuff that comes in wrappers, don't drink much alcohol or sugar drinks, do eat colorful food of all kinds and you will be fine.

don't stress about shoes - find one that fits the best and isn't crazy and that you like running in. All this talk of drops and whatnot is very person-specific and not applicable to everyone.

If you are in an injury cycle RUN LESS but replace it with cross training. But many get injured cross training so try to be careful on that.

Honestly, I'm most concerned about your leg length discrepancy and suspect until you figure that out your body will keep fighting you.

thanks for this, and i’ve thought about this too and wish it were this simple, but unfortunately i know i’m eating enough and good food. i am eating more than i ever have, as i became a runner.

i drink a lot of whole milk too for calories, protein, and all the healthy stuff in there. i make sure to eat whole foods a lot of the time, but know that it’s good to have unhealthy stuff occasionally/when i want it. i eat animal products (chicken, turkey, sometimes beef, milk, eggs) everyday and have no diet restrictions. thank you anyway!

for the leg discrepancy, can that really be fixed? my dry needler told me about it, and he said that my pelvis was also messed up. he said he could try to fix it another time if i continue having issues (which i obviously am) but isn’t sure. i think it could be a problem too, because i have tried/done everything else, but how is it fixed?

A good physical therapist can diagnose leg length discrepancies and pelvic imbalance. It may seem minor, but they can teach you all the right exercises and maintain balance of the legs/hips/back. It was a huge issue for my daughter. After 3 months of therapy, exercises and adjustment she has been doing well. This is not any easy “chiropractic” quick fix, but getting aligned, and strengthening the muscles in correct alignment are key.

try not to get medical advice from a dry needler. Go to a sports medicine doctor and talk about the leg length discrepancy. If it is real - if the only person telling you that you have a discrepancy is a non-MD then you should get the diagnosis confirmed by an MD and then talk about what to do about it.

Yes. It can be fixed. NO dry needling. if anything seems like an easy fix, it won’t.

I think you posted before and I answered before:

1) stop lifting and foam rolling

2) do 10 min pnf Stretches daily if you are thight, pnf not static.

3) Drink loads of water and sometimes go to massage

4) once per week some Bodyweight or jumps or Sprints if you think you need strenght training. Skip this for the first 6 weeks when you only stretch 10-15 min pnf a day.

Foam rolling and Weights are not needed, the runners of the past did not have them. They both damage your muscles with the goal to make them stronger, hence they cost recovery....

Light Plyometrics/Hill sprints/ have been proven to make you faster.

Pnf has been proven the bring down unhealty muscle tension and restore Rang of motion.

If that Does not work also Cut some Easy Runs and replace with bike, walking, swim.

So run, daily pnf Stretches, drink water and sometimes do some Hill sprints/ bounds/ drills or some bike/ swim. Skip all the other stuff

In my experience, I knocked out my PF issues in about two weeks by correcting my running form. Specifically, I was over striding and landing way out in front of my center of gravity. I've observed many people that over stride in such a way, including many new runners. I fixed this myself by taking a side-on video of myself running on a treadmill to recognize the problem, and then did proper foot landing practice in the 'chi running' style. It seems dumb but it really worked and prevented landing too far out. After I did that, I haven't had any PF issues in the last 8 years or so, and can do huge blocks of 140-160 mpw.

Left-right asymmetry or leg length difference can either be anatomical (different bone lengths) or functional (tight hips or glutes). The only way to tell for sure is to get checked out by a PT who can take measurements. I also have this and figured out that it was mainly functional. I sometimes get left IT band soreness resulting from poor mobility in the right ankle due to several sprains over the years. I can get around it by doing hip raises on both sides to strengthen glute med, as well as doing ankle mobility stuff and consciously thinking about doing proper ankle motion while running.

Most people have no idea what ideal running form looks like, even coaches from what I've found. What people see when they watch someone else run is the compensation pattern that the runner has developed to get around a particular muscle weakness. They can't really know what advice to give since the true source of weakness is being masked. The most efficient way to get straightened out (or if absolutely nothing else works) is to get examined by a PT/chiro knowledgeable in gait biomechanics who can do an exam to test for muscle weakness and figure out the cascading interactions, but good ones are hard to come by.

But, if I were you I start by checking for over striding.

You've been running for only a year.

If you're getting hurt, run less.

Eat better.

Sleep better.

When you can run more, then run more.

Find a nice bouncy pebax shoe w/no plate.

Alan

Hey, I struggled a lot with shin splints in high school too. It sounds a bit unbelievable but the thing that fixed it for me (almost instantly) was doing some of my running barefoot. Like someone earlier said, there's a good chance your form is causing you shin splints (it was for me), probably due to overstriding. If you're landing on your heels way out in front of your body, you're overstriding. Going barefoot automatically forces your body to run with a more natural form, and it strengthens muscles in your feet and legs that don't normally get worked because your shoes do the work for them. That could also be the cause of the other injuries you mentioned, but I can't speak on it personally. Since what you've been doing isn't working, I super strongly recommend it. You should be careful though, you're gonna essentially be changing how you run, and while it'll fix your shin splints, it can give you other injuries, especially when you're just starting. My recommendations that I mostly had to learn the hard way:

To start, just so you can see if I'm right or not, start your run like you normally do, ideally on a track or soft surface. Once you start to get shin pain, take your shoes off and just jog for .25 or .5 miles. I feel literally instant relief from shin splints as soon as I take off my shoes, but it may take a minute or two as your body adjusts. I didn't even need to try to change my form, I just stayed relaxed and my body naturally adjusted immediately. For your first time, .5 miles and a couple strides would be the most I'd do. If it helps, you can start integrating more of it into your training.

The most barefoot running I ever did was about 30% of 35mpw. I still did most of my running with shoes, but every week I'd do a 5 mile easy run barefoot, and 2-3 times a week after easy runs I'd do 4x200 on the track barefoot. If I was gonna do 5 miles with shoes but my shins started hurting, I'd normally just run 3 miles and then do 1 mile barefoot on the sidewalk as a cooldown. There were also some out-and-back routes where I knew I could take off my shoes for a mile then put them on otw back. My best track season (and the only one where I wasn't injured before the end) was the one that I ran most of the workouts barefoot. If we were doing 16x200 I'd do the first 4 with shoes, then go barefoot for the rest. If it was 4x1200 I'd do the first rep shod then go barefoot for the last 3. You shouldn't jump straight into that, but if running barefoot helps, starting to do some reps of your workouts barefoot is a good idea.

Just a warning: The first few times you do a workout or a distance run barefoot, your calves may be absolutely wrecked for a day or two. You can also get pretty gnarly blisters if you don't have callouses built up, but you build callouses quickly, and blisters aren't nearly as bad as shin splints. Hope it helps :)

Also, I absolutely love running and despise pretty much every other exercise (except climbing). I can't stand cross training. I know there are some people who don't love running, but they love competing, so they're fine with cross training to stay healthy. If that's you, then cross training may be a better option. If you're more like me, I think barefoot is the way to go.