Common Running Injuries to Look Out for and Prevent

There are a lot of things you can do to stay healthy, but physical activity like running is a simple and effective way to help with a multitude of things, including strengthening bones and muscles, controlling your weight, and reducing your risk of various diseases. Diet and many other lifestyle choices affect your health overall, but running can have an immediate impact on your body, and doing it regularly can improve your health long term.

However it also means the increase of problems in the bones and joints in your lower body, and there are several running injuries that are very common, but can be avoided. Let’s look at ways to improve lower body health and stay active by examining the mistakes that cause running injuries, the common injuries people get, and how you can avoid them.

If you live in the Shrewsbury, Toms River, or Wall Township, New Jersey, area and you’re coping with injuries from running or other physical activities, Dr. David Dickerson and his team at Performance Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine can help you get back on your feet.

Mistakes that lead to running injuries

With over 40 million Americans turning to running as a form of exercise, it’s not surprising that many of them get injured at some point. Overall, studies show that women have a lower risk for dealing with running-related injury than men, but factors like age, running surface, previous amount of physical activity, and running distance affect the risk of injury more in women. 

Men on the other hand, are more affected by previous history of injury, lack of experience running or starting to run again, and running a distance of over 40 hours weekly when it comes to risk of injury. Regardless of sex, more than 80% of damage people get from running comes from torn muscles, sprained ankles, and repetitive ,which can cause either acute (short lasting) or chronic (long lasting) pain.

Common injuries

Here are some of the injuries most runners struggle with:

Stress fractures

Common in the shins and feet, these are small cracks that form in the bones which usually comes from overworking limbs, especially when you’re adjusting to a new activity.

Shin splints

Also referred to as medial tibial stress syndrome or MTSS, this pain happens either on the front or the inner side of your tibia, or shin bone.

Muscle pulls

Overstretching muscles often cause pulls or strains in muscles, leading to a popping noise when they tear.

Plantar fasciitis

The thick band of tissue that extends from heel to toe at the bottom of your foot is the plantar fascia, and inflammation of this area causes plantar fasciitis, which leads to severe heel pain.

Sprained ankle

Twisting or rolling of the ankle often causes stretching or tearing of the ligaments there, leading to an ankle sprain and causing pain.

Runner’s knee

Patellofemoral syndrome, generally known as runner’s knee, is an overuse injury that can happen for several reasons including running or jumping, but often results from your kneecap (patella) being out of alignment.

Methods of prevention

There are specific things you can do to help with many conditions, but there are some basic tips to follow with any of these injuries:

• Rest: Your body needs to rest, and when you’ve sustained an injury, this can be an important part of the healing process
• Warm up: Getting your body ready for strenuous physical activity can help reduce the chances of damage, and can also be useful when that activity is done
• Avoid stressing the injury: If you have one of these conditions, one of the best things to do is to reduce the stress on it, to prevent further damage
• Exercises: For many injuries, there are exercises you can do to help strengthen the damaged area and minimize long-term problems
• Supportive gear: Orthotics, braces and other gear can be useful in minimizing the impact to injuries and supporting them as they heal

Don’t let injuries discourage you from doing things to help you stay healthier! If you're struggling, let us help. If you have a running injury and need to get help, make an appointment with Dr. Dickerson and Performance Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine today.