16 September 2013

During the competition run for peace, I almost fell down. To make sure that my leg won't get injured easily. I plan to do some research about injury prevention.

Research:
 http://www.bupa.co.uk/running/injury-prevention-and-recovery/avoiding-injury/how-to-avoid-running-injuries/

How to avoid running injuries

Running can be a lot of fun and is a great way to keep fit. However, it’s a high impact exercise and the stress on your lower limbs can cause injuries. Here, we outline advice from experts at Bupa Sports Medicine on what you can do to prevent injuries.

• Wear the right trainers
• Warm up and cool down
• Recovery
• Little by little
• Stretch
• Strengthen
• Listen to your body
• Sources

Wear the right trainers

A decent pair of trainers that have been properly fitted to your feet and running style are essential. Trainers may help to cushion the impact of running on your feet and lower limbs, helping to protect them. You should change your running shoes every 400 to 500 miles (up to 800 kilometres) to keep the support and shock absorption at the correct levels.

Warm up and cool down

Warm ups allow time for your body to prepare mentally and physically for the exercise you’re about to do. A warm up should include gentle cardiovascular exercise to allow your heart rate to increase gradually and muscles to warm up, followed by stretching. Cooling down helps to return your body to normal after vigorous exercise.

Recovery

You get stronger and fitter during your recovery, not during your run. If you don’t allow time for your body to recover, you may impair your performance and feel tired. Make sure you rehydrate after each training session.

Little by little

To prevent overuse injuries, don’t increase your distance or training intensity by more than 10 to 20 percent a week. This allows your body to gradually adapt to the increased physical demands on it without causing damage.

Stretch

Unfortunately, there is little good evidence that stretching prevents the risk of injury during sports or improves your performance. At worse, stretching may have no effect on injury prevention. However, a review of many of these studies concluded that it was probably too soon to dismiss stretching altogether and it may be possible that regular stretching over time by recreational runners may ultimately reduce injury.
More recent reviews have suggested that stretching in the 15 minutes prior to exercise may have the greatest positive effect.
If you feel that stretching is beneficial to your training programme and you want to stretch, then follow these basic principles to help you to stretch safely.

• Warm up before you stretch.
• Stretch before and after you run.
• Stretch gently and slowly.
• Stretch to the point where you can feel tension in the muscles, but not so much that you feel pain.
• Don’t stretch after exercise if you think you may have strained or overstretched a muscle, ligament or tendon.

Strengthen

Strengthening exercises help to ensure that your muscles and ligaments are strong enough to cope with the demands placed on them during running. Strength training also conditions your body to protect your joints.

Listen to your body

Have rest days when you need them and look out for any signs of injury. Pain is a sign of actual or potential injury that, if ignored, may get worse.

Sources

• MacAuley D. Oxford handbook of sports and exercise medicine. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2011
• Selecting and effectively using running shoes. American College of Sports Medicine. www.acsm.org, accessed 13 January 2011
• ACSM’s guidelines for exercise testing and prescription. 8th ed. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2009
• Herbert RD, Gabriel M. Effects of stretching before and after exercising on muscle soreness and risk of injury: systematic review. BMJ 2002; 325:468. doi:10.1136/bmj.325.7362.468
• Thacker SB, Gilchrist J, Stroup DF, et al. The impact of stretching on sports injury risk: a systematic review of the literature.Med Sci Sports Exerc 2004; 36(3):371–78. www.acsm.org
• Weldon SM, Hill RH. The efficacy of stretching for prevention of exercise-related injury: a systematic review of the literature. Man Ther 2003; 8(3):141–50. doi: 10.1016/S1356-689X(03)00010-9
• Woods K, Bishop P, Jones E. Warm-up and stretching in the prevention of muscular injury. Sports Med 2007; 37(12):1089–99. www.adisonline.com/sportsmedicine
• Brukner P, Khan K. Clinical sports medicine. 3rd ed. North Ryde: McGraw-Hill; 2007:81–82
• Delayed onset muscle soreness. American College of Sports Medicine. www.acsm.org, accessed 6 January 2012

Warm up

A warm up prepares your body for exercise. The most effective warm up will include both general and specific exercise to running.

The benefits of warming up before you start exercising may include:

• a gradual increase in your heart rate, breathing, body temperature and blood flow to your muscles
• increased flexibility (if you include stretching in your warm up)
• increased relaxation and concentration
• a reduced risk of injury

A warm up should begin with five to 10 minutes of low to moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise, enough to make you sweat slightly but not feel tired.
Once your muscles have warmed up a little, you may want to do some stretches. Stretching allows your muscles, tendons and joints to move more freely and helps you to feel less stiff. However, there is currently little evidence to show that stretching reduces the chance of injury.
Stretches can be static, where you hold your body in a position until you feel a stretch sensation. Or they can be dynamic, where you move your body through ranges of motion. Stretching shouldn’t cause you any pain.
There are many differing opinions regarding how long to hold a stretch – ranging from 10 to 60 seconds and in some cases even longer. However, 30 seconds is a common choice.
A warm up before running might include some brisk walking, gentle jogging or skipping, followed by some static and then some dynamic stretching. The most important muscles to stretch when running include your:

• calves
• hamstrings
• thighs (quadriceps)
• hip
• back

Listen to your body to create a warm up that works well for you.

Sources

• Brukner P, Khan K. Clinical sports medicine. 3rd ed. North Ryde:McGraw Hill; 2007
• ACSM’s guidelines for exercise testing and prescription. 8th ed. Baltimore:Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins; 2009:153
• 2008 physical activity guidelines for Americans. US Department of Health and Human Services. www.health.gov, accessed 13 January 2012
• MacAuley D. Oxford handbook of sports and exercise medicine. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2011
• Nadelen MD. Basic injury prevention concepts. American College of Sports Medicine. www.acsm.org, published 10 January 2012