Archive for August, 2009
These may seem like simple strategies but they can save you bigtime.
Running doesn’t seem complex; placing one foot in front of the
other, leaving the ground on each stride is as simple as a sport
gets–yet the repeated movement sets up a chain of events from
your head to your toes, and vice versa. Be out of alignment at
either end, and your entire body can be affected.
It’s a fact–Chiropractic Physicians are guaranteed a steady flow of
sports injury patients. In spring, baseball players come in with
pulled shoulders from excessive bat swings or throwing; in the fall,
footballers arrive with leg problems, not having kicked a ball for
months. Runners are not immune–though training year round, they
often move from endurance to speedwork or vice versa with no
preparation.
“FIND THE CAUSE…ACT ON IT.”
“Or to be long winded–do something to correct the weakness or
the problem which exacerbates an injury.
“Simple actions often prevent an injury, such as cutting the
tabs off your shoes and other remedies suggested earlier.
“The skill is in locating the problem. Is your noggin at a bad
angle; does your shoulder droop from a skiing crash; or, are your
feet unable to move in those lovely shoes.”
“To get faster, we’ve been pushing the body harder in terms of
effort or mileage. Every runner has a training threshold at which
each additional effort will give a decrease in performance–the law
of diminishing returns has set in. For the lucky ones, it means
frustration; for those who can’t recognize it in time, it leads to
injury.
“Train don’t strain, is this planets old motto. Those three words,
plus the six at the top of the page, are all this part needs. But you
have a book to write, a destiny to fulfill, so listen closely.”
That commenced our post-run fireside chats. A winter of
advice to fill the next two parts. Here’s what the Guru said.
“Six months of consistently running say 50 miles will allow
steady progress. A few weeks at 60 miles may result in an injury.
While recovering from the injury you lose training time; you lose a
significant part of the fitness gained in prior months. You often go
back to square one.
“Unfortunately…earthlings have different capacities before
injuries occur. Each runner can handle a certain mileage without
problems; increase the load beyond YOUR limit, and your body
soon breaks down. You can only learn by experience how much
your body can take before something gives.
“The prudent runner spots an impending problem early. When
you recognize there is a problem, the simplest action, yet the action
which runners resist most, is to…cut back on training.”Listen to your body.
It will let you know when something is wrong.
Sport Injury warning signs.
“Stress is often present–sometimes from the running itself, or
from work, money, family or house moving etc. Signs to watch for
include:-
1/ Feeling tired, perhaps not sleeping well.
2/ Illness, sore throat, colds or flu, skin conditions, mouth ulcers.
3/ Swollen lymph glands.
4/ Loss of weight.
“Stress or fatigue may express itself in your running speed–your
pace may decrease for a given effort. You think you’re running well
at 7 min miles, but on checking the final time, it works out at over
7½ min miles.”
“So I should reduce the stress level before an injury occurs?”
“Right,” he said. “A reduction of mileage by 20 percent is a
good start. Cut a mile or two off of most runs, and take an extra
day off. Swap relaxed sessions of fartlek for track work or repeti¬
tions. The cause of the stress should be addressed. Do something
about the stressors you have control over; live with, or completely
run from those which you don’t! If necessary, the running becomes
something it frequently is not after you’ve reached a higher
level–pure recreation.
“When moving house and or jobs, it’s logical to have an easy
four to six weeks of running. Do a weekly quality tempo, or session
of reps–short or long–it doesn’t matter which. Run moderately
long also, and you can retain 90 percent of your fitness for months.
When settled, you can return to your former intensity.
“Overtraining fatigue related to an increased non-running
schedule, should be distinguished from Delayed Onset Muscle
Soreness (DOMS), which is the muscle aches and pains you feel
after a particularly hard workout or race. This may last several
days, but walking at the end of the session and easy training for a
few days should see you back to normal.”
Self-inflicted Sports Injuries–use your head.
Self-inflicted injuries
“Plan your weekly schedule to put stress on a different aspect of
running on consecutive days. You may be able to handle 10 efforts
of 200 meters up a hill on a Monday, but you wouldn’t want to
repeat it on the next four days….and ‘kill’ your Achilles in the
process. Don’t run a hard six miles and repeat it each day either.
Spread the fast and steady running throughout the week and over
future weeks.
For more help on healing sports injuries, visit our website at www.DoctorGendron.com.
