With all the amounts of social distancing and stay-at-home orders in place especially for the non-essential workforce, there is a definite increase in the amount of runners and walkers out and about. With the increase in the amount of running done, there always poses the question: What do I do about (insert body part/injury here)? Here comes the age old PT-school answer: It depends! There are a number of factors that go into how and why people get hurt and it is not just about the uptick in mileage you may have seen in your training programs. Today, I want to discuss and review a few of the myths of training errors and talk about what are more attainable reasons for injury prevention.
10% rule
Thankfully this has continued to phase out through the year 2020, but there are some questions about the 10% rule I have heard from runners on their mileage each week. It’s pretty apparent with the most recent challenge presented that the 10% rule has not applied to a good majority of you. There are studies that show that even increasing that rate by an average upward increase of 25% total mileage per week has shown no difference compared to 10% increase per mileage in increases in running-related injuries (RRIs)(1). Even after injury, if you’ve had a previous high amount of mileage, that 10% rule does not apply well to your return to run program; but do take notice to issues such as bone stress injuries (BSIs) as they tend to recur fairly easily. (2)
Stretching
Another question I’ve been asked prior to these crazy times is “What stretches am I missing or not doing for my tight (insert muscle group here)?” I don’t think that there needs to be a specific or group of static or dynamic stretching for your running gains. This goes to say that this is against any form of stretching at all. I find them to be extremely helpful…in times hours away from your run. It just does not add any effect to your performance prior or after your run. A more important aspect of “lengthening” a tissue is mainly through control through the motion, which resistance training, yoga, pilates, etc. can take you through. Besides, stretching itself is not really lengthening any sort of muscle tissue(3); if we were able to do that fairly easily with long term changes, we would see different muscular appearances on different people at a much more frequent sight. Don’t feel guilty about how your body feels if you don’t stretch, but don’t neglect attempting to warm up prior to your runs; whether it be warm up miles or getting those running drills in!
If there is anything to learn from these myths, as we want to be faster, running-loving individuals, we just have to make sure we don’t pull too many levers (speed, mileage with frequency or distance, strength training, perception of fatigue) all at once. Keep your easy runs easy; as in, make sure you feel like you can carry a conversation at said pace, sleep A LOT, and don’t feel bad if you have to miss out on one or two runs to recover.
The important thing about what you’ve seen with this read is that the more you continue to involve yourself with patience and consistency in showing up to run, it will be much easier to weather the storm in the event of injury or change in normalcy such as our new found daily lives. Hope you all are staying safe and strong out there. Congrats to everyone who has started finding a new love in running, exercising, and being creative with your daily lives!
Stay strong,
Evan
References
1) Damsted C, Glad S, Nielsen RO, Sorensen H, Malisoux L. Is there evidence for an association between changes in training load and running-related injuries? A systematic review. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2018. 13(6): 931-942.
2) Warden SJ, Davis IS, Fredericson M. Management and Prevention of Bone Stress Injuries in Long-Distance Runners. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2014. 44(10): 749-765.
3) Freitas SR, Mendes B, Le Sant G, Andrade RJ, Nordez A, Milanovic Z. Can chronic stretching change the muscle-tendon mechanical properties? A review. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2018. 28(3): 794-806.