The Little Things
March 18, 2014

One of the things I’ve learned over the last 5 half marathon training cycles is that it’s far better to be proactive than reactive in dealing with injuries (or potential injuries). The first time I started to increase mileage, I started to have IT band pain. I got some physical therapy exercises, but did I do them? Not so much. My first half marathon training cycle, I got shin splints. Again, I got some exercises to help strengthen some weak muscles that the sports medicine doctor decided that I had. Did I do the exercises, no? I only iced or stretched if I started to notice things getting tight. I gave up lifting and pilates to just focus on running. All of these things led to exactly the opposite of what I wanted, which was to run. These left me sore, aching, and injured.

I want to state up front that I struggle with all sorts of re-occurring injuries. Between genetics (my brothers (one in the Air Force and one playing college soccer) are both incredibly injury prone too) and POTS (increasing chances of injury in general), I’m more shocked than not when I end a training week and actually feel somewhat put together (my left shin is hurting a bit right now… and I’m REALLY hoping it’s just sore and not the start of shin splints!). But I’ve learned, regardless of how I feel, to be proactive in dealing with things, hoping to decrease my chance of (or severity of) injury.

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Here are the things I do on a regular (at least weekly on average) basis to help prevent or decrease injuries:

So, these are a few of the things that I do very regularly to help myself stay strong, healthy, and decrease the severity of the injuries that are inevitable.

Now it’s your turn to share! What do you do to help avoid injury? Do you tend to be proactive in preventing injury or work out until you’re injured and then go into crisis mode?

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