Running Injury Prevention

How can I avoid injuries?

1. Stretch -
   1. Traditional Pre and Post Run Stretching. Most runners will lean against a tree to stretch their calves, then bend over to stretch their hamstrings and then grab their ankle and bring it up to stretch their knees. These are all good and basic exercises. There is a fair amount of research that inidicates streching is best done when your muscles are warmed up - so joggin a half mile before a stretching exercise is something we do, as well as focus our streching time more for after a run than before.
   2. Runners need some work on other areas - and the video on the right done by Dave Scott, Triathlon Champion, shows some great stretching exercises.
   3. Dynamic Streching has become very popular with high school and college distance running programs. The video on the right is a little dry, but goes thru over 20 different dynamic stretching exercises. These serve a purpose of both warming up the muscles and extending the normal range of motion. I find simply skipping is a great exercise for strengthening and stretching calves, knees and quads. The New York Times had a great article on Dynamic Stretching.
2. Good shoes –
1. Running Shoes designed for running. There really is a difference in price. For example, Asics makes the 1140 as a low cost model of the 2140. You will find the 1140 in Big Box stores like Dicks, where you would never find it in a store owned and operated by a real runner. It simply does not have the same level of stability and cushioning.
2. Get them fitted at a local running store if you can. They have the expertise and time to help you decide on the proper shoes that can help you. They are much better than the typical on-line suggestion of putting a wet foot on a paper bag. They can make sure you get a shoe is appropriate for your level of pronation – how you foot lands.  Some people land on the inside, some on the outside – different shoes and inserts can drastically reduce this effect and potentially prevent injury or help you recover earlier.
3. Also – limit running in a pair of shoes to about 400 miles. 
4. Have a new pair and old pair of shoes so that you can rotate them.  When your shoes reach say 300 miles – buy a new pair and use the old ones for another 100 miles by rotating which pair you wear every couple of days.
3. Muscle development.  There are two simple isometric exercises that every runner should do every day:
1. Sitting down – stick your leg straight out and tighten your thigh muscle.  This helps with Runner’s Knee by getting your thigh strong enough to absorb the shock of running.
2. Point your toes up toward the sky.  Or walk on your heels.  You will feel the front of your shin tighten up – this will develop your shins and avoid Shin Splints.

Basic Injury Prevention
Shin Splints
Plantar Fascitis
Runners Knee - (Chondromalacia of the patella)
Iliotibial Band Syndrome - (ITB)
Osgood-Schlatter's disease