Your Top INJURY PREVENTION tips.

quit running

Don't run and you will not get injured.

Weight vest training.

gophersports wrote:

Run on grass.

It's obvious, but try to get as much of your mileage on soft surfaces. Trail, grass, track is all great. Even if you are running in an urban area or around a college campus try to run on the grassy area next to the sidewalk or on grassy medians.

Bonus: It is slightly more difficult to run on soft surfaces so you work just a little bit harder than friends running on cement sidewalks.

Rofl. You just contradicted yourself and not only that, but mountains of scientific lore contradict your tip as well.

Why in the world would something that is more difficult to run on make you less injurious? That makes no sense and it's already been scientifically shown that softer surfaces INCREASE injury risk as opposed to hard surfaces.

Cynical. wrote:

What are your top tips for preventing injuries?

The best tip for preventing injury is going barefoot!

...haha no i'm just kidding.

But my best tip is to find yourself a good foam roller or massage product and use that immediately BEFORE practice. The cream of the crop in "Pregen" or "prepping the tissue for work" is Trigger Point therapy ultimate 6 kit.

Most runners have a foam roller like The GRID and only use it AFTER their runs. But the damage is already done! Now you have to work twice as hard to keep the injury at bay.

A good massage session on ALL the major muscle groups (not just the calves!) will ensure your muscles are elastic and ready for a given workload.

Trust me when i say I was BLOWN away by how much fresher i felt after a hard workout when i self massaged myself BEFORE it then if i had self massaged AFTER it.

Do you have any evidence running on grass is more likely to induce injury? My experience has been the exact opposite. Yes it takes more effort to run on grass but that has nothing to do with injury. Running in water is more difficult than running on concrete but injury is far less likely.

Grass is a soft surface that minimizes impact. I developed a 6 month long case of ITBS running on concrete. Rehab and rest only helped a little, it wouldn't go away.

With slightly new running form and running on grass, I feel almost no impact when my feet hit the ground. I've gone from ITBS to zero pain. I've rapidly increased my mileage for the past two months with most of my running on grass and Ive had no problems.

I rotate through a lot of shoes.

'and it's already been scientifically shown that softer surfaces INCREASE injury risk as opposed to hard surfaces.'

No, they found it didn't make any difference it was based on mileage tha injusries occured. But I don't think they did the study for long enough or with elites

It makes no logical sense that running on concrete is not going to damage you more. Try punching a wall with or without boxing gloves.

When El G at his peak his coach gave a lecture. Another coach asked him about road running 'he looked horrified and said he does not do any running on roads' He didn't seem to get injured much.

When I was younger and doing angling comps they had a saying never sit behind a poor fisherman. I trained with Ethiopians and they even walked to the track on the road instead of running on it but maybe you know better than them!

So my top tip is stay of the crete

do some sort of strengthening exercises, i.e. lunges, core work, every time you run. Use the old tried & true hard day/easy day approach, or even hard/easy/easy/hard..

I like to stretch before and after races. 20:00+ 5k'ers look at me like they might look at a guy chain smoking before a race.

Maybe its a coincidence, but I've always had better luck with injuries when I stretched on a regular basis.

Two words: SLOW DOWN!

Make sure that you sleep enough-- try to get in 8 hours every night

Stretch! Even when you're not sore make sure you stretch

Fill up on protein, especially after workouts

Dont overdo mileage

Make sure you emphasize RECOVERY on recovery runs

Eat clean, dont drink too much beer

acd wrote:

Do you have any evidence running on grass is more likely to induce injury? My experience has been the exact opposite. Yes it takes more effort to run on grass but that has nothing to do with injury. Running in water is more difficult than running on concrete but injury is far less likely.

Grass is a soft surface that minimizes impact. I developed a 6 month long case of ITBS running on concrete. Rehab and rest only helped a little, it wouldn't go away.

With slightly new running form and running on grass, I feel almost no impact when my feet hit the ground. I've gone from ITBS to zero pain. I've rapidly increased my mileage for the past two months with most of my running on grass and Ive had no problems.

"From a biomechanical standpoint we know that attempting to cushion impact reduces feedback to the body, resulting in altered muscle activity and foot position at contact. It has been shown that making impact with a soft surface can actually increase injury."

"For example, did you know that we’re more likely to injure ourselves on soft surfaces than hard ones? Whether you’re in conventional trainers, minimalist shoes or barefoot, softer surfaces reduce the efficiency of our elastic recoil and cause excessive muscle activity, one of the main causes of runners’ injuries."

Now as far as injury, cement is more likely to cause JOINT injury as soft surfaces cushion the joints. But no one cares about joint injuries because muscular injuries are the majority of cases. Plantar fascitis, achilles tendonosis, IT Band Syndrome etc all EXACERBATED by soft surfaces as compared to hard.

acd wrote:

Do you have any evidence running on grass is more likely to induce injury? My experience has been the exact opposite. Yes it takes more effort to run on grass but that has nothing to do with injury. Running in water is more difficult than running on concrete but injury is far less likely.

Grass is a soft surface that minimizes impact. I developed a 6 month long case of ITBS running on concrete. Rehab and rest only helped a little, it wouldn't go away.

With slightly new running form and running on grass, I feel almost no impact when my feet hit the ground. I've gone from ITBS to zero pain. I've rapidly increased my mileage for the past two months with most of my running on grass and Ive had no problems.

Don't be a smart alec. Running on water is such a bad analogy it's stupid. Water reduces your weight by such a large margin it is not comparable.

Get strong glutes/adductors/abductors. Basically muscles that can get rejected if you only run over a long period of time. Strong ankles too. And rows for a healthy back, in order to provide you with more stability for your discs, which are very important to maintain esp if your family or you is prone to back pain.

Lunges, adductor/abductor machines, ankle strengthening exercises, and rows. Stay healthy doods

strengthen the muscles that are long and loose and stretch the muscles that are tight and short.

keep your ankles, hips, and thoracic spine mobile and your knees and lumbar area stable.

hydrate

sleep 7+ hours a night

avoid processed foods

That's not really very solid evidence. Saying it has been shown without providing any kind of proof isn't convincing.

#1 Soft surfaces

#2 cycle through a 'stable' of shoes through the week

#3 ditch heavy shoes and let your lower legs get strong

#4 ice and massage (the trick is always to make it through the danger zone between injury and getting back at it if you can offset injury and slowly increase your mileage you will never look back thus icing and massaging are critical)

#5 See 1-4