You’re a runner? Here’s how to avoid injury

Gina DiPietro 0:06
If you're a runner, chances are eventually somebody's part is going to hurt more than it should. Welcome to Novant Health healthy headlines, I'm Gina dipietro. Running is a great exercise. But whether you're an outdoor runner or a treadmill fan, it can lead to injury. In this episode, Dr. Christopher Felton and Novant, Health Sports Medicine Specialist talks to Cliff Mertens about what common injuries runners deal with how to recognize when you're running too much. And when it's time to perhaps seek out a doctor. Thank you for listening.

Cliff Mehrtens 0:41
That I guess maybe the top three or four injuries you see with runners? Yeah, most common, I would say. So.

Christopher Felton 0:49
Stress injuries.

So like shin splints, or

Gina DiPietro 11:58
Jeanie dipietro here again, as you heard, running injuries are common and affect almost every part of the lower body but they don't have to, with patience, the correct nutrition and warming up, and always a good pair of running shoes, you should be able to make running a lifelong enjoyment. Thank you for listening to this episode of Novant Health healthy headlines. If you enjoyed this podcast, please take a moment to rate and review us and subscribe to this and all the Novant Health podcasts. We post new episodes all the time. Most are just 15 minutes. Thank you for listening

Christopher Felton 0:56
what we call kind of stress reaction injuries, where it's, it's not quite to the point where they have a fracture, they have a stress fracture, but it's they have that sort of Shin splint type pain. It can certainly happen in other areas. I mean, we'll see it, we'll see it in the in the hip, we'll see it in the foot. But most commonly in the in the tibia or lower leg. So that'd be that'd be the first thing. The second thing I would say is, you know, knee just kind of overuse tendon injury. You know, I was just thinking about, like going from, you know, in the spring when it's warming up, and maybe people are kind of getting back into running. And they maybe do a little more than what they want their bodies ready for

Cliff Mehrtens 1:43
sure. 70 degrees, you know, I've been Let's go.

Christopher Felton 1:48
That's right. Eight months ago, I was running, you know, five miles a day I can I can do that again. So yeah, and that goes along with the stress injuries, but but I would say tendon injuries are our number two. And that can be anything from Achilles to gluteus medius to the pair kneels in the ankle. But I would say tendon injuries are the are the second. And then I would I would maybe combine these two together. But like an IT band syndrome and plantar fasciitis,

Cliff Mehrtens 2:23
what's a general rule for if you start to feel pain, pain isn't normal. I mean, there's difference between a little soreness and pain, what's the best way to self diagnose and, you know, figure out a plan where I don't want this to hurt this part of my body to hurt How can I What can I do as a runner yet still be able to run to prevent this sort of thing from escalating?

Christopher Felton 2:45
Yeah, so I would say first thing is pay attention to your volume of your of your mileage. So if you can run a mile and and not hurt and not be real sore, then that's probably a good a good mileage for you, right now. If you run two miles, and by that second mile you're having pain, then that's that's too much. So keeping it keeping it in a mileage range, that it's not, it's not hurting you, too, I would make sure you have a good a good plan for, you know, a good warm up before you start. So five to 10 minutes of a good full body warm up, whether that's some calisthenics, or you know, running or jogging in place. That kind of thing to just kind of warm your body up before you get moving before you start running. And then certainly afterwards, when you're done, take that five to 10 minutes after your run to really cool down stretch. You're going to get more more out of your stretch after your runs than before. And then the last thing I would say is, is just make sure you have good shoe wear. Make sure that's updated before you before you jump in something that's supportive, something that's comfortable. And something that doesn't have more than, you know, 400 miles on it, what

Cliff Mehrtens 4:20
is the biggest mistake that beginning runners make? And in relative relation to injuries, what do they do that leads them into danger?

Christopher Felton 4:31
I would say too much too soon. I think just again, going back to the volume part, I think I think we kind of have this notion that you know, we want to get healthy. And maybe maybe the doctor is telling me I need to get healthy. And so it's like I need to I need to go from doing nothing to doing seven, seven days a week. And and that's just gonna be too much and they're gonna they're Gonna get injured? So I would say I would say that doing too much volume too quickly is probably the biggest

Cliff Mehrtens 5:07
input. And what about people who are established runners, you know, you reach that plateau, you've been running a while you want to up it a little bit, I guess they have to operate them to the same mindset. You don't want to chew off too much too soon and make this big leap. From x miles to Xyz miles. Same thing.

Christopher Felton 5:25
Yeah. Yeah. I hate to sound like a broken record. But I mean, that's really a lot of what it is, is just how much how much increase in your in your training that you do at a time. And generally, that's that's, you know, that is one of the biggest downfalls I think when people start breaking down and getting injured is they're they're just doing too much, too quickly.

Cliff Mehrtens 5:50
It sounds like the key part of being a runner is having patience.

Christopher Felton 5:54
Yes, but as counter opposite to a typical runners mentality. I think

Cliff Mehrtens 6:03
I could do seven, if I could do seven, I could do not

Unknown Speaker 6:06
sure. Sure.

Cliff Mehrtens 6:07
Yeah. Why not? Yeah, that's

Christopher Felton 6:08
absolutely. Yeah, I think I think another another good. Important point is, is what your nutrition is like, and making sure that your, your overall calorie intake is matching that increase in physical activity. Because if your body doesn't have the energy that it needs to go that extra two miles or mile and a half, or whatever it is, that can also lead to lead to injury and, and overuse injuries.

Cliff Mehrtens 6:43
That's a good point. I think a lot of beginning runners don't realize that that fuel is important. You can't just have the mental draw to say I want to run and yeah, is a pretty day, you got to have I guess that energy.

Christopher Felton 6:57
Yeah, and I think I think just, and I'm speaking from my own experience, but I feel like maybe on some level, we don't do as good a job of, of kind of emphasizing that to the patient. Or even just to the public in general, when they are starting to exercise, I think we have such this kind of like, you know, here's, we need to talk about like how gradually you increase your training volume, making sure you have the right shoes, making sure you have, you know, the right flexibility. But I think we leave out the fact that, hey, as you're burning more calories through the day, you need to be replacing those so that the next time you go out to exercise your body has the fuel that it needs to do that. That incremental increase in, in training. And also the quality of those calories. You know, it...