Lessons from Injury
Lessons from an injury
One thing every avid runner dreads is an injury that lays him off running. While every runner has been injured at some time or the other in his career, what one learns from each injury and takes these lessons into the future decides how strong the setback makes you.
With age, the muscles and other tissues get stiffer and more resistant to easy recovery after an effort.
And every workout leaves us with micro injuries to muscles and soft tissues. These need adequate rest and nutrition to heal properly before the next intensive effort can be safely made. If healed incompletely, these injuries tend to accumulate over time and end up as severe ones, often forcing the runner to stop. These muscles go into small knots, which become tender points. Due to these, the muscles shorten and make them prone to pain and further injury when used during the workouts.
Improper warming up, inadequate hydration and cool down further increases the risk of having these painful knots in the muscles. Stiffness in muscles develops not just in the muscles that are involved in the injury but also the other muscles in the complete biomechanical chain on that side of the limb. For example, a calf muscle injury may mean stiff hamstrings, glutes, piriformis and anterior muscles of leg.
Treatment of these require release of these knots by deep tissue release and stretches. Icing these muscles after these procedures which may feel very painful, further accelerates their recovery. Dry needling by qualified sports medicine specialists can help in immediate response and return to activity. Return to activity has to be gradual and graded in intensity and distance. Active rest and recovery for 1-2 weeks followed by walking, in which slow jogging on level ground, should then be built up to earlier intensity over next 6-8 weeks. Any recurrence of symptoms should lead to rest and a patient wait for adequate recovery before attempting workouts again.
Prevention of these knots requires proper warming up and gradual build up of intensity during runs, adequate hydration, electrolytes and nutrition. Post workout, proper cool down and static stretching of the muscles, and massage therapy 3-4 days a week. This can be self massage with foam rollers and stick and a deep tissue massage by qualified therapists.
Injuries have taught me great lessons. With each injury, I have learnt to get over them with proper treatment and rehabilitation, and tried to do the right things to prevent them in future.
But everytime an injury has made me halt my strides and threatened to end my running, it has made me realise the fragile state of fitness and good health we all live in and often feel proud of. It has made me learn the importance of life beyond this sport that has given me so much and has become an inseperable part of my life. I have learnt the importance of staying grounded, doing things beyond running and feeling grateful for every moment that I am able to run, whatever be the pace or distance.
One thing every avid runner dreads is an injury that lays him off running. While every runner has been injured at some time or the other in his career, what one learns from each injury and takes these lessons into the future decides how strong the setback makes you.
With age, the muscles and other tissues get stiffer and more resistant to easy recovery after an effort.
And every workout leaves us with micro injuries to muscles and soft tissues. These need adequate rest and nutrition to heal properly before the next intensive effort can be safely made. If healed incompletely, these injuries tend to accumulate over time and end up as severe ones, often forcing the runner to stop. These muscles go into small knots, which become tender points. Due to these, the muscles shorten and make them prone to pain and further injury when used during the workouts.
Improper warming up, inadequate hydration and cool down further increases the risk of having these painful knots in the muscles. Stiffness in muscles develops not just in the muscles that are involved in the injury but also the other muscles in the complete biomechanical chain on that side of the limb. For example, a calf muscle injury may mean stiff hamstrings, glutes, piriformis and anterior muscles of leg.
Treatment of these require release of these knots by deep tissue release and stretches. Icing these muscles after these procedures which may feel very painful, further accelerates their recovery. Dry needling by qualified sports medicine specialists can help in immediate response and return to activity. Return to activity has to be gradual and graded in intensity and distance. Active rest and recovery for 1-2 weeks followed by walking, in which slow jogging on level ground, should then be built up to earlier intensity over next 6-8 weeks. Any recurrence of symptoms should lead to rest and a patient wait for adequate recovery before attempting workouts again.
Prevention of these knots requires proper warming up and gradual build up of intensity during runs, adequate hydration, electrolytes and nutrition. Post workout, proper cool down and static stretching of the muscles, and massage therapy 3-4 days a week. This can be self massage with foam rollers and stick and a deep tissue massage by qualified therapists.
Injuries have taught me great lessons. With each injury, I have learnt to get over them with proper treatment and rehabilitation, and tried to do the right things to prevent them in future.
But everytime an injury has made me halt my strides and threatened to end my running, it has made me realise the fragile state of fitness and good health we all live in and often feel proud of. It has made me learn the importance of life beyond this sport that has given me so much and has become an inseperable part of my life. I have learnt the importance of staying grounded, doing things beyond running and feeling grateful for every moment that I am able to run, whatever be the pace or distance.
Very good and useful write up. Proper warmup and post run stretches keep you in good spirit of run. Thank you for highlighting the importance of rest.
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