Running is one of the most popular and accessible exercises to perform. It’s free, fun, effective, and can be done nearly anywhere! The benefits of running are numerous: improved cardiovascular performance, increased strength and conditioning of the lower extremities, and losing weight by burning calories. Unfortunately, there are some downsides to running as well, particularly the possibility of a variety of injuries. In this blog post we will discuss some of the most common injuries and how to address them.
The most frequent area of injury for runners is the knee.
There are a variety of issues that can cause knee pain, but iliotibial band syndrome (IT Band) is the one that most often brings runners to our office.
Your IT band is a strong tendon that aids in abducting the hip, or moving it out and away from your body. Runners who do a lot of hills, like the ones we have in Pittsburgh, will often feel this pain on the outside of their knee. It usually manifests as a dull pain that gets sharp bursts when going up stairs two at a time, or walking up steep inclines.
The most effective way to treat this issue is through hands-on care in the office. We use a variety of techniques to address the tightness including active and passive stretching, mobilization of the hip and knee, as well as deep tissue massage on the surrounding muscles. The majority of our patients feel relief on day one and are back to running full steam within a couple of weeks.
Preventing this injury is a little tougher. One thing that helps a lot of our runners is to foam roll their IT bands after every run. It’s also important to work your way up to doing steep hills. Start slow, shallow and short, work your way up to fast, shallow, and long; then do steep hills when you can comfortably run up a long hill at your normal pace.
What other areas do you treat?
The next most common injury we see is actually a lot worse than what we see in the knee – plantar fasciitis. This is when the bottom of your foot just in front of your heel has a sharp, stabbing pain on every step, especially your first few steps in the morning. The fastest way to get out of pain for this injury is to rest it and ice it. Unfortunately, this is an injury that will often recur, if it isn’t properly addressed.
In my chiropractic practice, I utilize a technique called Active Release Technique (ART). This is a very specific method of treating the soft tissues (muscles, tendons, ligaments, and nerves) to help them heal more quickly and to prevent future insult to the area. The key to effective plantar fasciitis treatment is that we need to treat a lot more than just the fascia on the bottom of the foot. The issue stems from the heel being pulled in the wrong direction by the muscles in the lower leg. This muscular imbalance exerts extra tension on the fascia, creating tightness that your nerves and brain interpret as a stabbing sensation. Relieving this tension helps restore proper support for your arch, enables the lower leg muscles to function with greater balance, and, therefore, decreases the amount of discomfort you experience. Every muscle in the lower leg that attaches to the calcaneus (your heel bone) is treated with specific ART protocols to help that tension melt away.
One thing you can do on your own for quick relief is to try freezing a water bottle or golf ball and rolling your foot over it with mild to moderate pressure for up to 5 minutes at a time. This is a temporary fix, but should help you get through the worst of it, until you can get in to see us for more specific treatment.
General tips for runners
Another important component of prevention is to change your running shoes every 250-350 miles, and make sure that you choose a style with sufficient arch support.
If you aren’t in Pittsburgh or Western PA, you can find an ART provider here: http://www.activerelease.com/providerSearch.asp