Fitness planner | Common running injuries, and their causes and solutions

Representational image. Work on hip and ankle mobility on a daily basis if you suffer from knee pain, and also rest and ice the affected area.

If you love running, it is best to familiarize yourself with injuries that could hit just about any runner—no matter how careful one is about avoiding them. Sometimes, injuries could hit you because of poor form, pushing too hard or trying too much too soon but a lot of injuries could happen due to circumstances beyond your control and without any error or fault on your part.

Causes

Largely, running injuries can be categorized as infrastructure-induced and runner-induced.

Infrastructure-induced injuries are beyond the control of the runner and caused by faulty surfaces, roads and parks we use to train. Potholes, slippery tracks and poor lighting are some of the most common causes for twisted ankles and fall-related injuries; incidents of unruly vehicles knocking down runners leading to fall injuries and broken bones aren’t uncommon either. Many runners often report heel pain, which is caused by running on very hard surfaces such as tracks made of tiles, stone and concrete—the worst surfaces to run on. You could try avoiding them but as any runner and coach would tell you, it is just a matter of time before they get you.

The runner-induced injuries are preventable in most cases as long as one follows a proper training plan and knows one’s limits and capabilities. “Everyone needs to know their capacity and how much overload their body can take,” says Delhi-based running and lifestyle coach Gagan Arora.

Most runners get injured due to running too much without proper training, coaches say. “Doing too much, too soon is the most common training error and that results in an overuse or overload injury,” says Dr Rizwan Khan, sports medicine physician from Mumbai.

Sports scientist Shayamal Vallabhjee concurs with Khan and Arora, saying, “90% of injuries are due to over-training or poor biomechanics. The best way to prevent injury is to use the progressive overload principle of not increasing your training intensity or mileage by more than 10% week-on-week.”

Lack of flexibility and strength training are also big contributors to injuries among runners.

The most easily preventable injuries are those caused by improper running gear such as wrong footwear, socks, shorts, tops and sports bras. Incorrect shoes could cause serious foot and leg injuries, wearing wrong socks is a guaranteed to buy you plenty of painful blisters and wrong shorts and top will leave you with chafing at places you thought were bulletproof.

Recovery time

Different injuries have different recovery periods. Bone injuries take about four weeks to heal but tendon and soft tissue injuries require treatment, rest and rehab of three to six months before one can resume running. Muscle injuries usually heal in six to eight weeks, says Dr Khan. Given India’s hot and humid climate, dehydration is also a leading cause of injuries. “Delay in replenishing vital nutrients and electrolytes post running is also a cause of concern.”

Common injuries

Below are the most common injuries that runners the world over have to deal with. In case of suffering an injury, discussing it with your running buddies, running groups and coaches is very useful but always consult a doctor or sports medicine expert lest it gets worse.

Knee pain: The knee itself is a very strong and resilient joint that works as per the demands of the hip and ankle. “If you have any sort of knee pain, you must look deeper into your hip and ankle. The problem arises in these joints and knee becomes the victim,” says Arora.

Anterior (front) knee pain is caused because runners usually have dominant quadricep (front thigh) muscles and weak hamstrings (muscles at the back of the thighs) which results in a patellar tendonopathy (problems with the tendons holding the knee cap in place) leading to post-run pain in the knees, adds Vallabhjee.

Solution: Work on hip and ankle mobility on a daily basis if you suffer from knee pain, and also rest and ice the affected area. The long-term solution would be to strengthen the posterior chain muscles such as hamstrings and glutes.

Illio-tibial (IT) Band Friction Syndrome: This is a common complaint among most new runners. The IT band stretches from the glutes (buttocks) down to the knee and stabilises the knee. This muscular band becomes tight and causes pain behind or on the side of the knees, especially if the gluteal muscles are weak and the IT band has to compensate for the running motion.

Solution: Foam rolling reduces the tightness in the IT. But the long-term solution lies in glute-strengthening exercises such as glute bridges, hip thrusts and squats.

Shin splints: Severe pain in the shin is often caused when runners abruptly increase their speed, distance or both in training before their body is ready for it. This is a classic case of doing too much too soon. Running too fast with a heavy heel strike on downhill sections of runs could also cause this. If not addressed in a timely manner, shin splints could aggravate to stress fractures, warns Vallabhjee.

Solution: The first thing to do is to stop running, followed by icing the shins and rest. Consult a doctor if the pain persists.

Plantar fasciitis: It is the inflammation of the thick connective tissue that supports the arch of the foot. This injury is usually caused by tight calf muscles. Runners with very high or low arches are more susceptible to plantar fasciitis.

Solution: Strengthen and stretch the Achilles tendon (at the back of your ankles), calf muscles and the plantar fascia. Use a gold ball to massage the arches using the foam-rolling technique.

Twisted ankles: This is usually an infrastructure-induced injury due to potholed roads or poor tracks that we run on. If you are lucky, you would escape with a simple sprain which would fix itself in a week or less and in the worst cases, you are looking at damaged soft tissues and tendons or a bone injury.

Solution: Do not run till the ankle is completely healed. Rest, ice, apply muscle relaxant ointment or spray and secure the impacted foot with a crepe bandage. Consult a doctor if things look bad.