Running injuries are common. So often that, I guess 50 percent of runners get injured every year, with some experts thinking that the real number could be even higher. Common injuries are stress fractures, IT ligament injuries, and runner’s knees. And in the past year, many people have changed their running routine – some out of necessity, others because of increased stress or anxiety.
“I’ve seen a huge increase in stress fractures, which are an overuse injury from high impact activity,” said Dr. Katherine Rizzone, an assistant professor of orthopedics at the University of Rochester who specializes in the management of injured runners.
In the past year, Rizzone has experienced many injuries such as tendonitis and fatigue fractures. Since she lives in Rochester, NY, she also saw many injuries from runners slipping on snow and ice during the first few months of the lockdown, when the weather was cold and slippery and the gyms were closed.
In a recent study published in the journal Limits in sport and active lifethe researchers asked more than 1,000 runners about their running routines before and during lockdown and about injuries they might have sustained.
Of the 10 percent of runners who said they were injured during lockdown, the most common risk factors included increasing the frequency of intense training sessions, moving from training location to lockdowns, and making multiple changes to their training routines at the same time.
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Although this study has a number of limitations – including self-reported data and a biased, mostly female group of respondents – the results are in line with some of what Rizzone saw at their runner clinic over the past year. As conditions have changed over the past year, many of us have changed our running routines.
Because of this, it’s more important than ever to take a look at your entire exercise regimen to avoid some of the most common injuries Rizzone saw in runners during the pandemic. To avoid becoming one of Rizzone’s next patients, here are some exercise strategies she recommends:
Cross training is important
For many runners, closed gyms meant they weren’t able to do their normal cross-training like swimming, biking, or elliptical machines.
“Instead, they are now running again six or seven days a week. That wasn’t smart for a lot of people, ”said Rizzone.
As a result, she has seen many more overuse injuries from runners who used to do cross-training regularly but just ran again. To avoid an overload injury, make cross-training part of your routine instead of just running all the time.
Gradually increase the intensity
When trying to increase your workout, be it total mileage or intensity, it is best to do so gradually. With regard to mileage, the recommendation is not to increase your total mileage by more than 10 percent per week.
Rizzone’s advice is to work on increasing your total mileage and intensity at different times. For example, you could spend a couple of weeks increasing your running performance and then a couple of weeks increasing your intensity.
“If you increase the amount and intensity at the same time, you really get into trouble,” she said. “Increases one by one.”
Weight training helps
Runners are notoriously bad at incorporating weight training into their routine. However, strength training has many benefits for runners.
“Runners have lower bone density than other people, so they should be lifting to protect their bones,” said Rizzone.
Weight training also has the benefit of increasing your overall body strength and correcting some of the muscle imbalances that you would get from constant running. The leg muscles you get from running are a definite advantage, but it’s nice to have a strong core and some upper body strength too.
Factor rest and relaxation
The value of rest is often overlooked by runners.
“Rest days are important,” said Rizzone. “People shouldn’t really be walking six or seven days a week.”
For people who are having a hard time resting, they can take relative rest periods where they do a different type of workout that uses a different set of muscles, such as yoga, weight lifting, or cross-training. It is important that you do not overuse the same muscles over and over again, as this will lead to injuries.
Think about other lifestyle changes
The runners who followed a constant training schedule over the past year also had problems, mostly due to changes in the rest of their lives. One culprit is that we are much more sedentary than we used to be, which can lead to back problems. Another surprising reason is the fact that most people do not wear shoes during the day when they are working from home. If you develop foot pain without significantly changing your workout, you can wear shoes during the day.
“I’ve seen a lot more foot pain in runners over the past year,” said Rizzone. Eventually she learned to ask if they wore shoes during the day. For many of them, the answer was no.
“For many people, foot pain went away when they wore shoes more regularly,” she said.
Injuries happen. When they do, they’re frustrating for a number of reasons, not least because they’re forced to sit on the sidelines just to get out. To prevent injury, it is important to take a holistic view of your training and remember that the goal is to train safely over the long term.
