Injury Prevention?

[GregC]

I started fell running a year ago and have had no injuries until 3 weeks ago. Terrain at 10 miles changed from soft ground to hard rock and my back and left hip started to ache - 2 miles later I was in agony (not helped by carrying the kids heavy kayak to the beacj and back when I got back). Just about recovered now after complete rest and a trip to the physio. I suspect it's been down to overuse and lack of rest but it got me thinking - is there any "essential" stretching and strengthening exercises I could be doing to help prevent injury?

[emumum]

I'm by no means an expert Greg, but I've been concentrating on strengthening my core to provide stability (planks and bridges and some lower ab work). I, like you, started fell running about a year ago and have had lower back issues in the past, and so far this has kept me free of major issue, still some aching and stiffness, but I can live with that. Hope a few more experienced folks contribute as I'm also interested... Good luck in keeping injury free :-)

[Derby Tup]

I have had lots of problems with my knees in the past but after firstly doing the 200 Squat Challenge (there's a thread in the Training section) and then incorporating regular squads into my training (100 -150 twice or three times per week) the problems have largely gone

It'll be interesting to see other forumites replies on this topic

[GregC]

Thanks for the advice. All I'm doing at the moment is some hip abduction, which I was advised to do about 18 months ago to strengthen the gluteous medius to prevent knee pain when I was road running (it worked). I'll start doing what you've both recommended.
I did notice this from "fellrunner" on hip stretching, but the link doesn't work:-
"Re: Hip Injury

Detritus has posted some great stretches on this thread;

http://forum.fellrunner.org.uk/showthread.php?t=2506

I'm prone to hip problems & these stretches keep them at bay. "

Would anyone know what these hip stretches would be??

[mr brightside]

It'll cost you money but it sounds like you may benefit from starting Pilates, it did wonders for my back. There's a lot of hip, back and stability related drills and also mobility exercises. No guarantees though.

[zephr]

To be honest, this is an area that I'm really interested in, so Im going to try not to waffle on too much.

There are a great number of things you can do in order to prevent injury (well, long term overuse injury- as opposed to falling down and cracking yer head on a stile injury).
It stems from biomechanics, if your muscles are not strong enough to enable you to run in an efficient way, eventually the structures around your joints/ muscles will break down.

An example shown earlier by Derby is doing squats which have a good effect on the knees. As long as these squats are correct, and the knee is going down in line rather than bowing out, the every time you squat you are training the muscles to remember what it is like to do a perfect squat- what it is like to push off the ground in an efficient way- and also, training the muscles around the hip and knee to hold the hip and knee joint in the optimal way.

As you may expect, this has benefits down the line- when you run down a hill, jump over that stile or what ever, your knees are bending, and because they have a neural pathway of that "perfect" squat, embedded into them from so many repetitions, and the muscles have become used to pushing up in that way, chances are, at the end of a race when you are most knackered, your knees are going to work in a biomechanically efficient way- and continue to do so, rather than start wandering all over the place, being inefficient, and causing more wear and tear and breakdown of tissues that you really dont want there to be.

As for weight training as a whole, (strength specific rather than hypertrophy specific) I think there is an arguement for as well. If, as an adequacy, you could squat your own body weight, dead lift 2x your body weight etc, not by having bigger muscles, but by recruiting more muscle fibres, surely you would be a stronger, more efficient runner, who is less prone to injury because of muscles that work optimally and fatigue less?
Im not entirely sure about that one, the theory sounds good, so Im going to see if I can try it out in the next few months.

hope that made sense, its not a definitive answer, and a lot of people might disagree, it would be good to hear their thoughts as well.

[zephr]

Greg... The hip stretches- it might well depend on which hip problems you have as to which stretches are going to be good.
If it is for glute med, you want to lie on the floor, bend your hip at 90deg and leg at 90 deg, and use the opposite hand to bring it over your body toward the floor in a stretch-
If you are doing the right side, you are using the left hand to bring it down the your left side.

[Twister]

Body weight exercises - but not just squats, incorporate a full body routine, 20-30 mins session 4 times a week is a great substitute for the gym. I think its essential to develop strong back and core muscles and upper-body strength. Its all connected.

I also try and run in the most minimally supportive shoes possible to increase foot strength and do the odd barefoot run in order to hard wire a protective natural running style. Read barefoot running thread in training for more info on that.

I really believe that it takes time to cope with the load of a typical 3-4 session a week + long run training plan and now in my 6th year of semi-competitive running I'm finding that injuries are less frequent, I tend to only get injured now through stupidity - like twisting ankles on loose rocky terrain, rather than the traditional road runner style of overuse injury.

[Grouse]

I have just started to think my hip flexors (are they the same as the adductors?) have caused me a lot of back problems from shortening them from sitting down, spend a lot of time sitting when planning and marking school work and after only a short time it starts to hurt, also seizes hamstrings up,so I would be very grateful for any stretches to benefithips. (sorry duin't mean to hijack the thread but I had planned to post about this and say how bad sitting down is for you. Best plan is to keep running and never stop. Ever. Haha.

[zephr]

Grouse, hip flexors are different to adductors. I seem to remember someone mentioning you are glossopdale? if you are, drop me a line on the forum, and if youre out on thursday I can give you a couple of stretches etc to be getting on with.