Nobody enjoys being injured. You can not compete, you are in pain, and you begin to lose the level of fitness that you have worked so hard to achieve. Knowing what causes your injuries is the first step towards preventing them.
The vast majority of running related injuries are due to one of these 3 things:
Poor biomechanics
Poor biomechanics are caused by adopting a running gait that does not agree with your body. You can do this by trying to improperly emulate somebody else's running style, or by wearing the wrong kind of shoes for your running style.
Most people can wear most running shoes without hurting themselves too badly, but if you plan on running regularly you should first visit a specialty running store and seeking the help of an expert that can evaluate what kind of shoes you should be wearing.
Your running style is going to have a close relationship with the proportions of your limbs to the rest of your body, to your weight, and to how fit you are. Be aware that the shoes that you find that work for you now may not always be the best choice. Shoe styles change from year to year (much to the annoyance of most runners) and your gait may change as you get into better shape or gain or lose weight.
Poor biomechanics can also be exacerbated by inadequate flexibility or strength, even in muscles that do not seem to be related to running. While you can use different muscles to perform different actions, your body is really just one big, well-connected machine.
Over training
There are four ways to over train your body, and they are not mutually exclusive.
The first and most common way to over train can be caused by increasing your mileage too fast and running more than your body is ready to handle. A safe way to increase your mileage is to try not to go up more than 10-15% or so each week from the week before, and to cut back at least 5% every 3 or 4 weeks. This gives your muscles an opportunity to adapt to your new training load.
Over training can also be caused by running the same mileage, but increasing some other physical activity that can tire you out or make it easier to pull a muscle that will sideline you. For example, if you are walking around carrying heavy boxes on a factory floor all day, then you are not going to be getting the rest that you need to increase your miles and may want to take your advances a little slower.
The third way to over train your body is to increase the intensity of your work outs. If you have not run for 2 years and you jump straight into a quarter mile interval session, you are going to be stressing your muscles more than they can handle. The best way to prevent over training is to first build up a base level of fitness before increasing the intensity of your workouts, and to then increase the intensity or your overall mileage from week to week but not both in the same week.
And finally, the surface that you run on can lead to over training if you take too much of a pounding (or too little) no matter how much you increase or decrease your mileage or intensity.
Trauma
Trauma is the sort of thing that can injure anybody at any time, whether they are running or not. It is caused by an external factor that causes you to hurt yourself such as falling down and breaking a bone, or twisting an ankle in a pot hole, or getting hit by a car.
Injuries of this sort are usually pretty self evident. Try to use some common sense and take precautions when you are running to minimize the chances of hurting yourself.
You can read more about how poor biomechanics, over training and trauma can lead to the 5 most common running injuries, and how to prevent those injuries, by visiting http://www.runtowin.com/tips/common-running-injuries.html
Blaine Moore has been running since the early nineties, and regularly competes in distances between the 5k and the 50k. To sign up for Blaine's Running Tips Newsletter, visit http://www.RunToWin.com or http://www.Marathoning.org
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