Are you constantly battling with tight hamstrings? Been told to stretch them but it doesn’t seem to help? It’s something I see all the time where they come into the clinic complaining of tight hamstrings and I get the same story, that they are stretching regularly but it doesn’t make any difference. Continue reading “Tight Hamstrings? Have you been told to keep stretching?”
Illiotibial band syndrome; What’s the cause and what to do about it
Illiotibial band syndrome often seems like a plague for runners. Everyone knows someone who has it or has had it themselves but it is much misunderstood as to what and where it is.
The illiotibial band is a thick, fibrous length of connective tissue that runs from the illiac crest to the lateral condyle of the tibia. It crosses both the hip and the knee joints and plays a role in the stabilisation of both of them. As well as aiding the stabilisation of the knee and hip it is involved in the abduction and extension of the the hip through the attachment of Glute Max and Tensor Fascia Lata.
Continue reading “Illiotibial band syndrome; What’s the cause and what to do about it”
Achilles tendinopathy – what can you do to keep running
Achilles tendinopathy is one of the more common running injuries and I mentioned it previously in post TOP 5 RUNNING INJURIES. As I mentioned there it is pretty much an overuse injury that can be avoided, for the most part though not always, by good programming. If you gradually increase your training load it is possible to avoid overuse injuries as you are training within your capacity to recover before the next training session. In doing this once you get to the tough part of the program the hard training in itself has a protective mechanism, as described by Tim Gabbett here.
Continue reading “Achilles tendinopathy – what can you do to keep running”
The 5 most common running injuries
What are the 5 most common running injuries? Running is such an easy form of exercise to get into and a fundamental requirement for a huge range of sports that it is no surprise that a huge number of people run as part of their fitness regime. Running injuries are very common with a figure of around 70% of those who run getting an injury of some sort every year. This isn’t because running is particularly risky rather it’s more that it’s very easy just to stick your trainers on and get cracking.
As a result of the very easy access to using running as a means of getting fit etc people tend to do it without much thought as to what they are doing. When I say this I am talking about how much they are doing in terms of either volume, intensity of effort and also in terms of the skill of running.
Whilst I would agree that we are all born to run not all of us are going to run well straight away and we tend to forget it is actually quite a demanding activity. Training load, the volume and intensity bit above, is generally the biggest factor in the causes of injury whilst the actual skill sits about 3rd but its importance increases as you get better at it and look to make more demands of yourself, the better your form the more likely you are to distribute the stress over the correct areas.
So what are the most common running injuries?
Where does the use of tape and other modalities fit into treatment and injury prevention?
One of our Facebook followers asked this question last week. It is a pretty simple answer in some respects and might surprise you. They are mostly of limited value and come way down the line in terms of providing benefit in either the rehab phase or in helping injury prevention.
Improving your ability to squat
Squatting is about as natural a movement as you can get but it is a skill that we in Western Europe and the US/Canada rarely practise. As such, as with any skill, not practising it means we lose it. Our lifestyles mean we do not need to squat in order to do anything then combined with a sedentary lifestyle has resulted in many of us losing the ability to do it well. As young children we have the ability to do it but often find that by the time we are adults, at least in the Europe/America, that we have lost the ability simply, I suspect, because we do not make use of it on a daily basis.
I’m injured. Should I run or not?
You are injured or have been injured but feel like you want to run anyway. Anyone who is active will have come across this situation regardless of what their chosen pastime or exercise is but for today we’ll use running as an example.
Ankle injury rehabilitation
When we are dealing with ankle injuries in the clinic we follow a basic protocol with them regardless of the injury. This doesn’t mean that we treat each one the same but rather that to ensure that each injury is addressed fully we require each individual section to be run through. In doing this we can ensure that there is the highest chance of a successful recovery. Continue reading “Ankle injury rehabilitation”
Knee pain and warming up for a run
Googling exercises for knee pain isn’t really the best way to deal with any problems you may be experiencing as they aren’t specific to YOUR problem. Having said this when it comes to looking to prevent getting knee pain the specificity issue becomes less of a problem as we aren’t looking to rehab an injury rather we are looking to ensure the areas that impact on the knee are in good condition. Runners knee or anterior knee pain is one of the more common issues that affect runners but adjusting how you warm up can help reduce the chances of it being a problem for you.