Staying injury-free while running is more than just stretching before your feet hit the pavement. Another way to prevent running injuries is by adding proprioception workouts, strength training, and flexibility movements to your routine. Below are seven ways to prevent running injuries and stay strong and healthy.
1. Understand Injury Risk Factors
There are two main categories when it comes to injury risk factors: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic factors are biological and psychological traits, including age, muscle fatigue, and previous injuries. Extrinsic factors are within your environment, such as running surfaces and equipment. By knowing these risk factors and preparing accordingly for them, you can be proactive and prevent injury.
2. Focus on Proprioception
Proprioception has to do with your body and its awareness and balance in the world. This is especially crucial when exercising, and helps with your muscles and joints to maintain balance and position. Though these can be hindered by fatigue, which increases your chance of injury. By adding proprioception workouts into your regimen, though, you can strengthen those muscles and decrease the chances of future injuries.
3. Build Muscle Strength
Muscle strength can immensely help with the impact of your feet hitting the ground, along with launching yourself forward into the next step. Having imbalances in those muscles can put you at risk of injury, so it’s prudent to make sure every muscle group gets attention. So, when you exercise, make sure to target both the agonist and antagonist muscles to protect against injury.
4. Enhance Flexibility
Flexibility helps a lot with joint mobility and injury prevention. Instead of just normal stretches that don’t engage the whole body, try active stretches that enhance the elastic tissues needed for athletic performance. Once you get into a groove with the active stretches, try to avoid prolonged passive stretches as they could negatively impact the muscle tissue.
5. Integrate a Comprehensive Training Program
By taking all of the strategies above and combining them into a training program, you can create a strong and healthy body that’s less prone to running injuries. You can also add proprioceptive exercises, strength training, and flexibility work into your normal routine, too. Either way, your body will be a lot happier and stronger.
6. Listen to Your Body
Your body knows its limits, and it’s super important to listen to them. If you ever feel pain or discomfort during an exercise, make sure to rest or stop the movement to avoid injuries like stress fractures, muscle tears, etc. Also, make sure to pay attention to your running form, and slowly increase the intensity to avoid pushing yourself too far.
7. Consider Cross-Training for Movement Diversity
Adding some cross-training can provide some much-needed diversity in your workout routine. This training could be neuromuscular training, balance exercises, agility drills, or other workouts. These not only help with your strength and flexibility, but can help with balance and coordination, protecting your body from injury.
Final Thoughts
By adding just a few of these strategies to your workout routine, you can successfully run without an increased risk of injury. These methods are not a solution to running injuries, but can keep your body healthy and strong to avoid more common injuries. Stay consistent with the workouts and see your progress on the next run!