6 Training Tips for Avoiding Running Injuries

Injuries are the bane of every runners existence and sometimes are a fact of the runner's life, but here are a few training tips that might help you avoid injuries before they start.

1. Slow and steady wins the race. Give yourself lots of time to train for your event. You may need an extra week of recovery.  Do not increase any element of your training too quickly. 10% per week is a good amount of distance to increase per week. I always stick to 1 km to keep it safe.

2. Do more runs, not less. You are better off to do 4 runs of 20 min runs in a week instead of  a 40 minute run twice.

3. Only change one element per week. Do not add hills AND intervals in the same week.

4. If you feel an injury coming on, take a step back (see my previous blog on managing your own running injury)

5. Stretch and strengthen. There is plenty of information out there to keep you strong and healthy for your running season (see my favourite running website strength running) . A good base before your running season of glut, hamstring, hip flexor and core strength will go a long way and maintaining that strength throughout  the season will really help keep you injury free (and running better!). Anyone who runs needs to incorporate some stretching into your program too - especially if you sit at a desk all day (one of my previous blogs details the "dangers" of sitting at a desk all day). I have some insomnia issues so do my stretching before bed every night. I find it doubles as both injury prevention and relaxation technique!

6. Keep a healthy weight. Of all the factors associated with running injuries overtraining and a higher body mass seem to have the highest correlation. On the flip side, a low BMI has also been associated with an increase in stress fractures and spinal injuries in women. Stress the HEALTHY in healthy weight!!

If you find you are injured and would like more information on our services visit our website.

As always, thanks for reading, Rebecca

Photos courtesy of Google Images

Top 6 Signs You Need Physiotherapy

My husband has been complaining about an Achilles issue for a couple of years now. With two little ones to be constantly trading off, there is no time for in clinic, hands on treatment from me. But as you may have guessed, I am a big exercise pusher... So a couple of weeks ago he lamented (again) "am I never going to be able to run again?" And, my response (again) was "Have you been doing your eccentric exercises?" This time, though, he has actually followed my advice and has been doing them regularly. Last night he said to me "I think those exercises are actually working."
Really? Was my advice your last resort?
So, when do you know that you need an expert (physiotherapist or otherwise) opinion in regards to your injury?

1. You have an acute injury. Heard a snap? Have bruising? Swelling? Are you limping? Time to see a doctor or physiotherapist. Your physiotherapist can assess your injury and will help maximize your recovery as well as give you a program to help you get back to your sport/activity of choice while minimizing the chance of re-injury.

2. You have had surgery or been immobilized. Surgery and immobilization can lead to limits in strength, range of motion, proprioception (balance and motor control) and gait. your physiotherapist is trained to maximize your recovery of all these elements.

3 Pain is holding you back from your normal activity levels. I am a firm believer in living an active lifestyle. Activity helps you heal faster, sleep better, live longer and improves mental and emotional well-being. And in my opinion REST RARELY fully RESOLVES the issue (see my instructions on dealing with running injuries!) So do what ever you need to get back to it!


4. You have numbness. Any numbness indicates there is a pinched nerve. Your sports/orthopaedic specialist (doctor, physiotherapist, chiropractor) will help diagnose where the numbness is coming from and how best to deal with it.

5. Dr. Google hasn't helped. It is hard to diagnose yourself. I have a hard time doing it and I am a trained professional! Yes, sometimes you can help yourself with one quick fix, but in most cases someone needs to physically see your weaknesses, tightness, posture and more to really give you an appropriate diagnosis and program.

6. All else fails. Hopefully you will not be like my husband and wait until this happens, but if you are at this stage maybe its time...

To see what a physiotherapist at our clinic can do for you, see a list of our services on our website.

As always, thanks for reading, Rebecca

Guidelines for Dealing with your Running Injury

As I was out enjoying a beautiful fall run this weekend, it occurred to me that some easy guidelines for dealing with running injuries would be helpful to a lot of people. The following are a few simple steps that I tend to follow when I suspect a running injury of my own:

1. Go back to the volume and intensity you were doing before the pain started. The human body has an amazing ability to adapt to stresses placed on it, but if training increases are greater than the body's ability to adapt, you will get overall regression in tissue strength instead of progression. In a study looking at types of running shoe correlating with injury, it was actually body mass index and training intensity that were correlated to injury; shoe type had no correlation! And try to do this AS SOON AS you realize there is a problem. I always tell people the longer you have an overuse injury, the longer it will take to heal from it. The tissues have be degrading the whole time you have been in pain, often even longer!


2. If the pain persists after a week of reduced running volume and intensity, do modified activity for a week. This could include running in the water, biking, hiking or a yoga class. Anything that will decrease the impact on your body, while maintaining some fitness.


3. Do some specific rehabilitation exercises. While you are doing your modified activity, it is a perfect time to try to do some exercises to promote your healing and address imbalances. I would recommend eccentric strengthening (see my previous blog on eccentric strengthening) if you think it is a tendon issue, ITB roller or some specific massage ball work, gluteus and core strengthening and lots of stretching. Every runner I have ever treated could do more hamstring, calf and hip flexor stretching. Do them every day you remember.

4. If after a week of modified activity and rehab exercises your pain has reduced significantly (80%better) go back to #1. If not, I would suggest consulting a sports medicine specialist or physiotherapist. You probably need specific exercise prescription as well as some hands-on treatment or modality intervention.



If you are lost trying to figure out which rehabilitation exercises are right for you or if you are on a rigid training timeline, you may need to see your physiotherapist even sooner!


Happy running!!
For more information on our practitioners and services, please see our website www.macleansportphysio.ca.

Pictures courtesy of Google Images.

Doping in Canada: Views on steroid use from a sheltered athlete

With the scandal surrounding the Russian track and field team for the upcoming Rio Olympics, I am reminded of my own experience as a short term member of Canada's Track and Field team. I entered track quite late in life - 1994 to be exact. This was 6 years after the Ben Johnson affair, after the Dubin enquiry and all the shame that it brought to Athletics Canada and the country in general, so my experience was shaped significantly by these events. I personally never saw any evidence that any drugs were in use. I never saw anyone giving each other needles in the change room, a practice that I heard from a close friend had once been commonplace at the Metropolitan track and field center where I trained. I was never approached by anyone offering me any illegal substances. We were schooled extensively by medical staff before any international competition on substances that were illegal that we might not even know about (anything with Sudafed for example - so I have always had a hard time believing someone was taking anything "by mistake"). I was drug tested 3 times; once randomly during the training season and given 3 days to show up and pee in a bottle; and twice with my placing at the Canadian track and field championships where I was escorted for a test immediately after the competition was over. Any undesired activity that was happening was kept on the down low; the Canadian centre for ethics in sport and the Canadian anti-doping program were doing their best to minimize the chance of another scandal. Canada had incurred enough humiliation.

So, am I surprised by the information coming out about the Russian athletics team, or the government instituted cover-ups? Not really. There were always rumors alluding to this kind of activity (both the use and the cover-ups) I had a friend who was approached by Charlie Francis who was still coaching despite his life-long ban - suggesting something new. There was a local doctors that gave "vitamin B12" injections to help performance (ironically, the same Dr who did my random drug test... hmmm). And those were just local rumours. At the time the Americans never seemed to get caught - why was that? Did they just have deeper pockets? (this was before the Marion Jones scandal). How did some athletes get so big or so strong so quickly? or recover from injury so fast? Athletes are always on the edge of injury and overtraining, especially when it comes down to centimeters or 100ths of seconds, and anything that will allow you to train harder or have faster recovery would be very tempting, especially if it was something new and there was minimal chance of discovery. And when there are even larger egos on the line (coaches, government officials and a whole country), I am even less surprised that this has occurred.
Saddened, but not surprised.

This blog is written by Rebecca Chambers, physiotherapist at MacLean Sport Physiotherapy. For more information on our staff, treatment and services please visit our website.

 

Photos courtesy of Google Images

 



Top 6 things that bother me (as a physiotherapist) about Televised Sport

I love to watch sports and enjoy it the same way most people do - for the competition and pure spectacle of it. But every once and a while something just irks the physiotherapist in me. So here are the top 6 things that bother me about televised sports:

6. Not showing what the therapists are doing out there on the field. I want to see what tests they are doing and from that extrapolate what they think the injury is (although I do recognize that this may not be interesting to everyone...)
5. Not showing enough replays of injuries. Unless there are bones sticking out, I kinda want to watch it again (and again and again.)  I want to figure out what the injury is!!
4. The "magic" sponge. C'mon people, after that spectacular fall, a wipe down with a sponge and you are all better? What drama school did you go to?
3. Labeling an injury "upper body" or "lower body" injury. Really? This is top secret information?? Just give me the details already.
2. Announcers shortening or not labeling the injury. One example that really gets me is when it is announced that so-and-so "has a hamstring." Well, yes they do. So do you, and I and almost everyone else on the planet. There is more than one thing that could be wrong with said hamstring.

And the number one thing that irks me about televised sport is..

1. The inference that it is because an athlete had "all the best treatment" they have recovered so well. While this may be partly true, it negates the fact that the athlete is a)in amazing physical shape to begin with and will thus recover more easily and b)that the athlete probably WORKED THIER BUTT OFF to get there! I would like that to be the take home message to the public... not that there is some magic physiotherapy treatment that they are missing out on!

By Rebecca Chambers, Registered Physiotherapist, Acupuncture and Fascial Stretch Therapist.
Picture courtesy of Google Images.

Top 5 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Physiotherapy Program

These are all very self explanatory, so here goes...

5. Be Realistic. In general the longer you have had a condition, the longer it takes to reverse it. Also if you continue to do the things that have caused the condition whether by necessity (work) or unwillingness to cut back on exercise, it will take much longer to recover.

 

4. Be Optimistic. You almost always have the capability to improve your function if not reverse the condition but it may take work (see number 1!)

 

3. Be Honest. We cannot accurately adjust your treatment and program if you do not tell us what has made you better, what has made you worse or whether you do your exercises (but see number 1!)

 

 

 

2. Follow Instructions: If your physiotherapist has suggestions for work station or training changes, position or movement changes, they have given you these suggestions to help mediate your recovery (also see number 1.) Remember, we see you for at most 2 hours out of the week - what you do the rest of the time is more important than what we do in the clinic!

and the most important way to get the most out of your physiotherapy program...

1. DO YOUR HOME EXERCISES!! Whether the goal of the exercise is to optimize healing (see my blog on eccentric exercises), correct muscle imbalances or to maximize function, each exercise has been given for a reason. And when I say do them, don't just go through the motions; be aware of the purpose and the proper mechanics while you are doing them. However, if you are finding it hard to get all of your exercises in (I will openly admit I get a bit carried away at times) please let us know (see number 3!). There are often one or two exercises that are the most important for recovery and doing them will be better than doing nothing at all. It is after all 'Physical Therapy!'

written by Rebecca chambers, BSc(PT), MSc
pictures courtesy of Google Images

Fascial Stretch Therapy

I have just returned from a week long course certifying me as a level 1 Fascial Stretch Therapist. Fascial Stretch Therapy (TM) is a system of therapist led, bed based stretches. It differs from traditional stretches which target specific muscles. Fascial Stretch Therapy (TM) targets any tissue that might be limiting range of motion as well as function of movement.

As a physiotherapist with a science background preparing for this course, the first thing that struck me was the name. Really? How much is the fascia limiting range of motion and am I really 'stretching' it? Within the first two days of the course they showed a fascinating video showing the importance and dynamic nature of the fascia. The fascia is highly adaptable and contractile in nature, so yes, it can limit range of motion as well as effect the nerve and blood flow in the body. Having now taken the course, I also feel that the name Fascial Stretch Therapy is a bit of a misnomer. Perhaps Neuro-Fascial Stretch Therapy would be a better description as the program zones in on relaxing the nervous system as much as stretching the fascia. This relaxation is achieved through several avenues; synchronized breathing, joint traction as well as the use of the stretch reflex (PNF stretching). This system of addressing the body as a whole to increase range of motion and flexibility really clicked with me.

The second thing I wondered was how I was going to integrate this therapy into my rehabilitation based practice. In the week since I took the course, I have found it to be quite useful. It is great for relaxing whole joint complexes, even multi-joint chains and saving my hands for the specific work as I need to do it. Postural tightness or years of overuse exercise, which have probably lead to the injury at hand, are relaxed and loosened up much more easily than with previous hands on treatments. On the whole, I have found the Fascial Stretch Therapy (TM) to be a great treatment technique that I have been able to incorporate immediately into my practice with great results.

For more information on FST please see the excellent explanation of what it entails and its benefits on their blog.


**Permission has been granted by the Stretch To Win Institute to use the trademark Fascial Stretch Therapy (TM) or FST(TM) as long as certification is maintained in good standing. For more information about FST(TM) please visit www.stretchtowin.com.**