Beginning Running
As the nights get lighter and lighter and the temperatures improve many of us decide to throw off the inactivity and weight increase of the winter months by trying a bit of jogging. We dig out the running shoes and get out there on the road, after all how hard can it be? Running is very convenient, does not need high degrees of skill and is relatively cheap overall. Unfortunately many of us are woefully unprepared for the physical stresses on our tissues that a sudden increase in activity brings. Every spring brings a sudden influx of joint sprains and muscle strains to physiotherapy practices in the country as they struggle to cope with the back, knee and foot pains caused by running.
Commonly people start off in a rush of enthusiasm, not realising that they won't know how much they have overdone things until much later, perhaps the next day. They do far too much initially at too high an intensity or for too long, or try to make too much progress too quickly. The body's tissues have a tolerance to physical stresses and these vary with our age, fitness, health and other factors. If the tolerances are overstepped the tissues will react with pain and injury with overuse syndromes of patellofemoral pain, ilio-tibial band syndrome, tendonitis and bursitis, along with muscle strains and joint sprains. If the stresses are heavy and repetitive then stress fractures can occur as the small foot bones are unable to cope with the degree of stress.
A more measured approach to the starting period of training is necessary or to control one of the elements of the training such as the intensity, frequency or duration. Controlling one of these elements may allow training to restart or progress in fitness to be maintained. Non-professional runners may often let a small injury grumble on for too long before doing anything about it, allowing a small problem to become chronic and difficult to treat. If you get a new pain or ache then you should take it as a sign that something has been injured and you should pay attention to it. If you have taken normal steps with ice, treatments, activity modification and painkillers, then you should seek help if there is no improvement in ten days.
New and inexperienced runners can try a walking and running routine, and I have used this myself due to back pain experienced in running. I went for a ten minute run to get back into the swing of things and afterwards felt some back ache which got worse until the next day it was quite troublesome. Since it lasted for a week at a moderate level I was not very keen to continue and stopped for a while. Then I got keen again and went for a ten minute run again, with predictable and unpleasant results.
On a friend's suggestion I tried a running walking regime and it worked so well that I could run continuously for forty minutes before long, and without back pain. To start off the runner can do one minute's running and then walk for four minutes, repeating the process up to five times. The number of running minutes is increased and the walking ones decreased until the person can do an uninterrupted run.
The usual way of sticking your shoes on and then doing a bit of stretching before you set off for your run may be unwise as stretching before exercise may make injury more likely rather than less. Starting off by walking initially and then walking faster with longer strides can get you warmed up and get blood pumping into the muscles.
Also if you are running flat on a treadmill more often in the winter then injury is perhaps more likely as you start to deal with the cold, the slipperiness and irregularity of outside terrain, all of which demand more flexibility yet make it more difficult to do this. The typical hard concrete pavement is not a suitable surface to run on as the impact is too hard as we pound along. Even though running is cheap it is not wise to skimp on expenditure for good running shoes, fitted professionally by a specialist in a running shop. - 20762
Commonly people start off in a rush of enthusiasm, not realising that they won't know how much they have overdone things until much later, perhaps the next day. They do far too much initially at too high an intensity or for too long, or try to make too much progress too quickly. The body's tissues have a tolerance to physical stresses and these vary with our age, fitness, health and other factors. If the tolerances are overstepped the tissues will react with pain and injury with overuse syndromes of patellofemoral pain, ilio-tibial band syndrome, tendonitis and bursitis, along with muscle strains and joint sprains. If the stresses are heavy and repetitive then stress fractures can occur as the small foot bones are unable to cope with the degree of stress.
A more measured approach to the starting period of training is necessary or to control one of the elements of the training such as the intensity, frequency or duration. Controlling one of these elements may allow training to restart or progress in fitness to be maintained. Non-professional runners may often let a small injury grumble on for too long before doing anything about it, allowing a small problem to become chronic and difficult to treat. If you get a new pain or ache then you should take it as a sign that something has been injured and you should pay attention to it. If you have taken normal steps with ice, treatments, activity modification and painkillers, then you should seek help if there is no improvement in ten days.
New and inexperienced runners can try a walking and running routine, and I have used this myself due to back pain experienced in running. I went for a ten minute run to get back into the swing of things and afterwards felt some back ache which got worse until the next day it was quite troublesome. Since it lasted for a week at a moderate level I was not very keen to continue and stopped for a while. Then I got keen again and went for a ten minute run again, with predictable and unpleasant results.
On a friend's suggestion I tried a running walking regime and it worked so well that I could run continuously for forty minutes before long, and without back pain. To start off the runner can do one minute's running and then walk for four minutes, repeating the process up to five times. The number of running minutes is increased and the walking ones decreased until the person can do an uninterrupted run.
The usual way of sticking your shoes on and then doing a bit of stretching before you set off for your run may be unwise as stretching before exercise may make injury more likely rather than less. Starting off by walking initially and then walking faster with longer strides can get you warmed up and get blood pumping into the muscles.
Also if you are running flat on a treadmill more often in the winter then injury is perhaps more likely as you start to deal with the cold, the slipperiness and irregularity of outside terrain, all of which demand more flexibility yet make it more difficult to do this. The typical hard concrete pavement is not a suitable surface to run on as the impact is too hard as we pound along. Even though running is cheap it is not wise to skimp on expenditure for good running shoes, fitted professionally by a specialist in a running shop. - 20762
About the Author:
Jonathan Blood Smyth, editor of the Physiotherapy Site, writes articles about Physiotherapy, back pain, orthopaedic conditions, neck pain, injury management and physiothrapists in Southampton. Jonathan is a superintendant physiotherapist at an NHS hospital in the South-West of the UK.
Posts
Post a Comment