Part 1: Warming Up Properly
By Chris Lauretani, PT, MS, CSCS, CKTP
Running injuries affect nearly 50% of recreational runners at some point over the course of a year, however that number can jump to almost 90% during marathon training. Overuse injuries such as plantar fasciitis, ITB tendinitis and patella femoral syndrome can lead to unwanted downtime during crucial training periods. Once an injury occurs, a runner’s primary concern shifts off training and must be refocused on recovering. This reactive treatment of an injury is necessary and part of every athlete’s recovery process, but wouldn’t it be great to proactively prevent a large number of these injuries from happening in the first place?
This is where training is taken to a place that many runners fear…. valuable free time spent on something other than running. Many runners, both elite and recreational, feel that every single second of training time should be spent running, but if you want to stay injury free, it is essential to devote part of your weekly routine to proactively preventing injuries. This can be accomplished in part by warming up properly and participating in flexibility training, core / strength training, and cross training.