Dr. Lee Miller Injury Prevention & Treatment Information for Runners

Most athletes at some point in training are afflicted with injuries. These range from mild to severe and may require no time off to permanent cessation of the responsible activity.

Fortunately, most athletic injuries are preventable and treatable. It is important that the athlete has a basic understanding of the causes of injury and how injuries are treated. This can help to minimize the down time that injury causes.

Injuries can be broken down into two major categories; those caused by macrotrauma and those caused by microtrauma .

Macrotrauma consists of visible, obvious injuries and includes conditions such as: dislocations, fractures, and acute sprains and strains.

Microtrauma is insidious and in a most basic sense is damage that is unseen and unrecognized by the athlete.

Microtrauma can be further divided into two classes: intrinsic and extrinsic .

Intrinsic microtrauma encompasses the following factors:

- malalignment (patellar tracking, hips, pelvis)
- muscle imbalance (strong hamstrings vs. quadriceps)
- inflexibility (tight gastrocsoleus muscles, iliotibal band)
- muscle weakness (insufficient VMO strength)
- instability (weak ankle ligaments, torn knee ligaments)

Extrinsic microtrauma encompasses the following factors:

- training errors (too quick an increase in mileage/intensity)
- equipment problems (wrong footwear)
- environmental adversity (too hot/cold/ slippery)
- techniques errors (improper stretching/downhill running)
- activity based deficiencies (runners tend to be inflexible)

Another important cause of injury is a no pain – no gain philosophy.

Most of the categories of injury we have discussed, with the exception of a moderate to severe trauma, result in overuse injuries .

Overuse injuries are common in runners. An overuse injury occurs when the ability of the body to repair itself is outpaced by the damage that occurs as a result of activity.

If you sustain an injury, it is important to try and find the cause.

You should ask yourself the following questions:

1. Have I recently increased my mileage?
2. Have I recently changed the types of workouts?
3. Have I recently changed my shoes?
4. Have I not changed my shoes for a long time?
5. Is this injury a recurring problem?

Unfortunately, the cause or causes of some injuries are difficult to determine. The reason for this is that the location of an injury may seem unrelated or too far removed from what one considers a “typical” running injury. What one needs to realize is that the body is interconnected . That is to say, an injury in one area of the body may be caused by a problem in another area.

One very common problem area for runners is overpronation of the foot. On occasion symptoms relating to this problem may appear in the foot itself, but there are many other problems that can result from this.

Here is a list of injuries that are linked to excessive pronation:

Achilles tendonitis patellofemoral pain syndrome
Heel spurs chondromalacia patellae
Peroneal tendonitis pes anserine bursitis
Bavicular stress fracture trochanteric bursitis
Spring ligament sprain hip joint capsulitis
Lower leg muscle sprain/strain TFL strain
Toe extensor muscle spasms piriformis muscle strain
Plantar fascitis hip flexor muscle strain
Mtatarsalgia sacroiliac joint problems
Ssamoiditis tibial/fibula stress fracture

As one can see a myriad of problems can arise from a common problem in a majority of runners. What can the athlete do to avoid injuries?

Most of injury prevention is common sense!

TIPS ON INJURY PREVENTION

1. Obtain the proper footwear – for pronators, supinators this is essential

2. Build up gradually to increased mileage/intensity

- do not exceed 10% increases in mileage per week
- remember the hard-easy rule

3. Do proper warm up, cool down and stretching routines

- prepare the body for activity
- bring the body back to normal after activity

4. Pay attention to aches and pains: prompt attention = prevention

- one of the most common things I hear: “I thought it would go away!”

5. If problems persist, get help!

- you may minimize your downtime considerably

These strategies help to minimize or correct any inherent problems that the athlete may have and allow the body to adapt to the demands put upon it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 1st, 2004 at 7:00 am and is filed under running(t) . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.