Achieve Performance Lab
Share
09/04/2020
Runners have firm beliefs on what they should be doing to prevent injuries. What if I told you many of these treatments and modalities are not as effective as once thought? 🤔
In this study, 720 runners answered a questionnaire after an organized running event. They were asked their beliefs on injury prevention strategies. Their responses included stretching, appropriate shoes, strength training, balance training, insoles, massage, kinesiotaping, and orthoses. Of these runners, 21.9% were dealing with an injury prior to the event. Clearly their strategies were not working 🙊
So, what DOES reduce injury risk?
💎 Training load management- Are you monitoring frequency, duration, intensity of workouts to ensure you are not progressing too quickly? Are you factoring in other life stressors that may be limiting your body’s capacity to take on physical stress from workouts?
💎 Sleep- Are you getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep each night? Our bodies need sleep to adequately recover from our training loads. Without enough sleep, we are slower to recover and this heightens our risk of injury.
💎 Nutrition- Are you fueling your body for the activities you are performing? Athletes need to ensure their caloric intake is at least what they are burning during the day to avoid a caloric deficit. This leads to low energy availability and results in compromised physiological processes which can affect recovery, performance, and increase injury risk.
💎 Strength training- Are you lifting weights? Stronger athletes get injured less. The stronger you are, the greater capacity your body has for physical activity.
Not sure where to start or how to piece these areas together? Reach out to a running coach.
Wilke J, Vogel O, Vogt L. Why Are You Running and Does It Hurt? Pain, Motivations and Beliefs about Injury Prevention among Participants of a Large-Scale Public Running Event. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019;16(19):3766. Published 2019 Oct 7. doi:10.3390/ijerph16193766
08/21/2020
🏃♀️ Step Rate Manipulation 🏃♀️
Heiderscheit (2011) found that increasing step rate by 5-10% can reduce mechanical energy absorbed at the knees by 20-34%. This is important to note as approximately 50% of running injuries occur at the level of the knee. An increase in step rate was also found to reduce step length, vertical center of mass excursion, braking impulse, hip adduction angle, and hip internal rotation moments.
What is the practical implication of this? 🤔
Manipulating the step rate can have an impact on many variables of running gait. Changing step rate can be an alternative to changing foot strike when gait retraining. Increasing preferred step rate by 5-10% can be helpful in runners who overstride as well as those dealing with a running related injury to the knee.
Using a metronome can be an easy way to get runners to increase their cadence. There are many different apps that can be downloaded for this. Weav Run is an example of one that changes the beat of songs to your specified cadence.
Now this does not mean every person needs to change their cadence. Having a running evaluation performed by a physical therapist or running coach can be helpful to determine if any individual changes should be made. Have you ever had your running gait analyzed?
Heiderscheit, Bryan C et al. “Effects of step rate manipulation on joint mechanics during running.” Medicine and science in sports and exercise vol. 43,2 (2011): 296-302. doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181ebedf4
07/06/2020
📢 New Blog Post 📢 To Stretch or Strengthen?
I don't know about you, but I don't feel like there is enough time in the day! I want to make the best use of my time. Check out this new blog post to learn what the most efficient use of your time is with training.
https://www.achieveperform.com/post/to-stretch-or-strengthen
Click here to claim your Sponsored Listing.
Category
Contact the practice
Telephone
Website
Address
Chicago, IL
