Listen to your body
An injury prevention screen identifi es your weak spots
With more than a decade of experience as a physiotherapist and a runner, Timberly George has seen countless injuries from running — shin splints, plantar fasciitis, bad knees, and more. She knocks on wood as she considers why she’s never had a running injury. It could be luck, she says. Unlikely though, because as a sports physiotherapist, George knows that proper injury prevention techniques can help runners avoid many of the aches and pains that come with long distance running. The following is an edited interview with George, a physiotherapist at Vancouver’s City Sports and Physiotherapy clinic. Q What are some injury prevention tips for people just starting out with running? A You really need to listen to your body. If something doesn’t feel right, whether it’s pain or maybe just tightness in one certain muscle, that awareness is the first step. Find out ahead of time where your weaknesses are in your body before they become a problem. The majority of us have some sort of weakness, imbalance, asymmetry from right to left or front to back that somewhere down the road, with repetitive activity like running, is going to cause you a problem. Q What can a runner do if they do identify those weak spots or sore muscles? A Go see a physiotherapist or other health care professional that does an injury prevention screen. I have these fit- to- play assessments for people to help them with whatever activity they want to do. I assess their range of motion, their joints and the strength of their muscles and flexibility, and core stability to pick up where there may be deficits, then I can build them an exercise program that may be a combination of strengthening and stretching and target it to their sport. If you address them now then we can hopefully prevent them from being problems in the future.
Q What is an example of a typical problem ? A Someone sprains an ankle and they assume it’s better and then go running, but two or five years later, I’ll assess their range of motion and find that they have a limited range of motion on one side . And typically that will be on the side that they sprained in the past. So because they never gained that full range of motion they are left with limited mobility and then running with that limited mobility can cause everything from Achilles problems to knee and hips problems. Something like the ankle can work the whole chain up the body. Once I’ve identified a weak muscle I can recommend some strengthening exercises . Q What type of crosstraining exercises do you recommend for runners? A If it’s winter, then snowshoeing or cross- country skiing is great. Go swimming, or if it’s warmer outside, get on a bike. Even just hiking or walking. It can be activities with a similar range of motion to running. It’s just important to do other exercises other than running so that the load is different on the body. It can be anything — yoga, Pilates or beach volleyball. Running is a very linear motion and weaknesses that we find ( in runners) are related to those muscles that move from side to side and it’s those patterns that runners don’t do, so they get weak in those muscles.