Longest time injured?

[Penguin]

last year 11 months, recovered from one injury only to get another one trying to come back too quick... know in the process of biting me lip while people pass me in the cross country.. another 10 years of pain will see me fit!

[andydubois]

Hi All

Been reading this post regarding everybodies injuries and as a Personal Trainer who specialises in injury rehabilitation and an Ultra runner ( WHW, TMB, P100) thought I'd give a bit of advice.

As far as muscle strains go 10-14 days for a minor one but 4-6 weeks before it regains full strength, a major tear will take around 4-6 weeks with up to 12 weeks to regain full strength.

For long term injuries such as Plantar Fascia , Achilles Tendonitis , ITB etc it really depends on whether you can find the real cause of the injury. The reason these types of injures re-occur is that the symptoms have been alleviated but the root cause of the problem hasn't been fixed.

Finding the root cause of the problem can be tricky and can be as a result of a completely different part of the body - eg, poor foot biomechanics can cause ITB pain and a weak hip muscles can cause Achilles Tendonitis.

The body works as a chain of muscles, joints ligaments etc, what happens at one joint affects everything else. So for example if you have Achilles tendonitis you are told to stretch your achilles and strengthen your calves but the real problem might be your hip cant control the inwards rotation of you leg when you land which puts and twisting force on your achilles. WIthout strengthening your hip your achilles problems will contain to affect you.

It is worth every cent if you can see a physio or similar who specialises in running injuries and can prescribe corrective exercises. I'm based in London so am probably no good for most of you but if you are southerner contact me if you need some advice.

Dont listen to doctors or surgeons except as a last resort - No disrespect to either profession but surgery cant be undone and I would always investigate every other option first. A doctor or surgeon is not a specialist on retraining the muscles of the body to function properly so they cant be expected to know if this can remedy your problem.

Barefoot running is a great option to try as it makes the feet wotk much harder and allows them to function more natuarally, this gives more stimulus for all the muscles in the leg, hip and pelvis. Just ease into very slowly if you want to try this option.

Have a look at http://www.andydubois.blogspot.com , there are some articles on injuries and strength training for runners that some might find useful.

Any questions let me know.

[Twister]

over 3 months with an ankle injury (at end of last year).

I used barefoot running as part of the rehabilitation process and changed to forefoot striking and steadily worked on my form. I also started again. basically started running from scratch. So did really small runs and gradually upped the mileage. So far I'm 11 months injury free. The main diff with my training this year is I have done no foolish interval/fartlek/tempo/speed work nonsense. Just lots of hills (sometimes at a bit of a steadyish pace) and lots of long slow miles.