Break The Injury Cycle

Every year, over 80% of all runners develop at least one injury. Of those, many of them experience injuries that become chronic or recurring. Many of those runners have done ‘all the things’ to fix their problem – rest, changed shoes, saw medical specialists, began stretching, added strengthening exercises to their routine – and yet they continue to have problems. 

It does not make sense that the injuries continue. Or does it? 

Many injuries are not necessarily due to being tight or weak, but instead are due to compensations, habits, and movement faults that the body has created. Unfortunately, stretching and strengthening alone will not correct those issues. The body needs to be taught how to move differently. In theory, this is a very simple process, but not enough people take the time to dig deeper to look more thoroughly at the body. 

Have you ever had anyone watch you move? I mean actually watching you to figure out what your body is doing? Before you answer ‘yes’ to that, let’s make sure that is true? 

• Did the running analysis just look to see if you were pronating and/or heel striking? Or did it look at full body to assess what everything was doing as a whole unit? 

• Did your therapist or chiropractor just look at overall movement? Or did he/she break things down to see what movement faults or compensations were present? 
• Was an assessment done based on your sport or was it generic for the general population? 

And when it comes to fixing the problem, is the problem actually being fixed? 

• Are you having a lot of passive work done to your body? Or are you an active participant in the process? 
• Does your therapist or coach give you exercises to do to correct movement faults or compensations? Or are you given strengthening exercises that ‘should’ fix the problem without any cues to teach your body what to do differently? 

• If you aren’t making progress within a week, are things being changed or looked at? Or are you told it just takes time and to continue doing the same exercises without being corrected on technique? 

I encourage you to start asking ‘why’, digging deeper, and challenging the norm. The simple truth is that injuries do not need to last for months or years. In fact, if most injuries are addressed properly, they tend to clear up rather quickly and stay away! With that said, the longer your injury has been present, the longer it will take to resolve. 

Another important thing to note, once the injury is resolved, it will likely be a longer process to correct all the compensations your body is doing as a result of the injury as well as any compensations your body was doing to create the injuries. When I work with people, the pain is typically gone in 2-4 weeks, depending on how long it was there in the first place, but then it is several months longer of work to clear all the compensations patterns that are present. 

If you are feeling frustrated and hopeless because your injury will not go away, I understand. I have been there. That is why I want to help you! Schedule a Discovery Call to figure out what you can do about your injury.