Have you ever struggle with injuries or unexplained pain in your legs, or hip/knees area while trying to finish a run? I was there once, and I learned about running injuries the hard way …
This was back in 2015, I was living in Melbourne and running almost every day without a specific training. During those days I just felt like running! Participating in half marathon races nearly every two months, it was fun until my body said enough.
During that time I did not know how to listen to my body, today I think that I should have felt something that could have indicated me that an injury was coming, but I probably just ignored it.
It was during a normal day, I was out there running when suddenly I felt a burning sensation in my knee, followed by a sharp pain that prevented me from even walking! It was very scary because the pain was increasing, as I was barely trying to walk back to my house from the park.
I did not know much about running injuries back then but I knew I had to RICE, yes, Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation, and after a couple of days I should be fine. But I wasn’t getting better. The pain in my knee was just there. So I made the smartest decision: to stop running and see a sport physiotherapist. By mere luck I went to see whom I later thought was probably the best physiotherapist in Melbourne. He was also a runner, and told me he could only treat my injury for three sessions, because he had been hired to be a full time physiotherapist for the hawks, the melbourean footy team from Hawthorn.
I said it was ok, at that point I just needed someone to tell me whether I could go back to running or not. When I told him about my problem, he said ‘oh so your knee hurts when I press here’. He touched my hip and the pain in my knee raised again. For him (and for me today) my problem was clear, it was the irritation of the IT band for overuse. After three sessions of deep tissue massage in the hip area, I was back running like a wild rabbit!
The IT band, also known as ilitobidial band, is a tendon on the side of your legs that goes from the top of the pelvis to the shin bone. It connects the tensor fasciae latae muscle and gluteus maximus (that entails the largest butt muscle, hip extensor and external rotator) to the outside of the tibia, keeping your hip and knees stable. The physio realized that I had a very weak core, gluteus muscle and hip flexors, and because of that I was over stressing the tendon.
Luckily, I was given specific instructions on how to avoid injuries like that one. I remember the physio repeatedly said, ‘you cannot just run! You also have to stretch and do some strength training’. By stretching we are releasing tension in the muscles surrounding the tendon, especially the gluteus maximus and tensor fasciae latae, as well as the neighbouring quadriceps, hamstrings, hip flexors, and hip rotators. By doing core exercises we are strengthening the hip muscles, correcting our running form, hip imbalance and possible tendons overuse.
After that, I added stretching and strength training exercises to my routine. I can say today that I have been able to run many marathons and even a 60km ultra, without having an IT band or any running related injury.
The moral of the story is to realise that whenever we decide to go out for a run or start a training plan, we are making a good decision by wanting to get fit, but we may also be risking our health. So what should we do? We have to exercise consciously, listening to our body, and doing more than just running: let’s add stretching moves and strength exercises to our routine.
In this blog I have added a set of exercises for stretching and strength training. Have a look, and try to add them to your routine!
Happy running,
Camila