Overuse Injuries in Runners

Avoiding Overtraining and Overuse Injuries

During the COVID-19 pandemic most of us are experiencing changes to our personal, professional and social lifestyle. Something that has changed for many of us, is our ability to exercise as we did prior to this pandemic. While gyms, studios, swimming pools and other sporting facilities are closing down, the ability for people to run outside has remained widely accessible.

Running is a high impact activity and like other sports, should be progressed appropriately with a physiotherapist, coach or trusted personal trainer. As with any high impact exercise, the risk of developing an overuse injury is very real for people who are new to the sport and progress too quickly (Brukner & Khan, 2012).

What is overtraining:

Overtraining is a process of excessive training or an accelerated increase in training load at a speed at which your body can’t maintain homeostasis (Brukner & Khan, 2012). When you body is not able to fully recover from each training session, a sports person can experience persistent fatigue, mood changes, reduced performance and overuse injuries (Brukner & Khan, 2012).

Common overuse injuries include:

  • Plantar Fasciitis

  • Achilles tendinopathy

  • Tibial Stress Fracture

  • Shin Splints (Medial tibial stress syndrome)

  • Runners Knee (Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome)

  • ITB Friction Syndrome

  • Osteitis Pubis

  • Tennis elbow (Lateral Epicondylalgia)

  • Golfers elbow (Medial Epicondylalgia)

  • Rotator Cuff Tendinitis and Tendinopathy

In addition to overtraining, there are many other ways to influence how your body will respond to new exercises and increases in training loads. If we use running as an example, important external factors to consider would be running surface, shoes and appropriate clothing for training temperature. Intrinsic/internal factors can also manipulate how well someone will cope with new exercises and increases in training load. Intrinsic factors can include mal-alignment, leg length discrepancy, muscle imbalance, muscle weakness, lack of flexibility, weight, gender, body composition, genetic factors and metabolic conditions (Brukner & Khan, 2012).

How to prevent overtraining:

  • Begin slow

  • Have 24 hour rest days between training sessions initially

  • Build up by 10% each week (this is an generalisation and will be different person to person)

  • Listen to your body

  • Seek assistance with your program from a professional

  • Cross training

  • Apps such as couch to 5k can assist your transition into running however these apps should not replaced an individualised program

  • Be aware of external factors such as exercise surface, shoes and equipment and manage appropriately.

  • Have a full-body physiotherapy assessment prior to running. A MSK physiotherapist can identify any intrinsic factors that may predispose you to overuse injuries and can provide a rehab program to correct these factors before they turn into an injury.

References:

(Brukner & Khan, 2012)

Brukner, P., & Khan, K., (2012) Clinical Sports Medicine 4th Edition. Australia: McGraw-Hill Education Pty Ltd


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