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It’s been a fun summer of pain-free running. My blog, linked, is how I got back into a slow, and very satisfying, run groove.

Recently, I’ve been managing common niggles. My niggles were a reminder that it’s much easier to prevent injury, than treat one.

The niggles stayed minor because I never ran through pain, and shut down immediately when I started to tighten up.

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Previously, I shared my Hamstring Protocol (Google Doc) for a return to activity.

From the protocol:

1. Reduce the stress that’s hurting you
2. Reduce long periods of sitting
3. Remember: if you are constantly injured then you need to change your overall lifestyle

Time to consolidate and follow my own advice.

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Goals:

• Enough stress to make progress
• Not so much stress we trigger injury

This means we need to reduce stress while we strengthen our weak points.

For nutrition, it is the exact same advice to lose body fat. Drop stress before moving forward.

If we layer on additional stress, while seeking change, not going to make it.

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I’m going to run you through to components of my program:

1. Daily Habits
2. Damage Limitation Strategies
3. The Cycle of Injury
4. Strengthening Prior To A Return to Loading

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Daily Habit of Mobility Work

10 minutes per day, minimum, every day.

It’s done wonders for me.

1. Hip Progression (PDF Link)
2. Daily Barefoot Flexibility Routine (Video Link)

I also added the Couch Stretch (Video link) as it helped balance my increased time on the bike.

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Damage Limitation Strategies

As soon as you feel tightness…

Stop making things worse and…

Get eccentric load into the problem area!

In my case:

• Hamstring : legs up the wall lowers (Twitter Thread)

• Calf : straight & bent-leg lowers (Twitter Thread)

Both of these provide relief faster than rest alone.

Relief doesn’t mean I’m ready to return to the cycle that caused the issue in the first place.

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The Cycle of Injury

My issues arrive via : (a) equipment; and (b) load.

My hamstring issue came from my bike position. My saddle was too far back.

Easy fix => acute phase exercises combined with position change

My calf issue had a source in my training load. Here, I want to share a lesson from an Orthopedic Surgeon buddy…

Overuse injuries take six weeks to form

So it’s not the workout where you noticed the issue… it is much more likely the six weeks of training that occurred prior to the issue.

In my case:

• Uphill bounding (20s efforts)
• Uphill sprints (5-8s efforts)
• Bike sprints (5-30s efforts)

All of the above are stressful on my calves, particularly after years of not running.

Another heuristic passed down to me:

A tight muscle is a weak muscle

Before any of us progress to injury, there is tightness. Often chronic tightness that doesn’t go away with dedicated mobility work.

Time to strengthen!

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Strengthen Prior To A Return To Loading

Autumn is the ideal time to address a weakness, likely to cause injury as soon as we seek to ramp load in the Spring!

Again, whatever your long term limiter happens to be (technique, body composition, emotional stability, finances, posterior chain)… NOW IS THE TIME

I asked my Twitter Pals for help and they came up with a solid range of suggestions (Thread Link)

1. Single-leg deadlifts (weighted & unweighted)
2. Jump Rope (too advanced for me, right now)
3. Foot-elevated Calf Raises (Video Link)
4. Double Leg Pogos (2 x 20) (Patrick’s Tweet has a vid)
5. Reverse Lunges (torso over hip)
6. Front Squats (heels elevated, vertical torso)
7. Vibration Gun
8. Self-Massage

To these, I would add:

• Mini-blasters (highly effective plyometric progression)
• Hinge Lift (Posterior Chain)

Biomechanical Challenges, specific to running:

• Rate of loading – even a slow jog has faster loading than many traditional gym movements
• Lower leg loading across the footstrike – often as the arch collapses
• Hamstring loading as the leg swings forward

The challenges are addressed by the plyometric component of the program.

Drop load when you add plyometrics AND always add plyometrics gradually. They are strong medicine.

The suggestions split themselves into three categories

Post-Run

• Daily Mobility Routine
• Self-Massage
• Vibration Gun

Strength Routine

1. Unweighted Single-leg Deadlifts
2. Reverse Lunges (torso over hip)
3. Front Squats (heels elevated, vertical torso)
4. Hinge Lift

Plyometric Routine

1. Foot-elevated calf raises
2. Double Leg Pogos
3. Mini-Blasters

Most of us will need to split the strength routine away from the plyometric routine. When I combine, I find the fatigue is a bit like 2+2=5.

Where to start depends on what you’ve been doing for the last six weeks. I’ve been slowly developing overuse injuries… 

If you haven’t been strength training then you’ll need to come in very gently.

With the mini-blasters, each cycle takes a minute and I take a minute between cycles. Five rounds, when combined with the rest of my program, proved more than I could handle!

Here’s my plan:

1. 1-2 sets of each exercise
2. Split Strength Away from Plyometrics
3. Do each program once every ~10 days
4. Repeat for ~60 days

With every intervention, the first “little bit” has the highest return. This is particularly important with respect to mobility work.

Finally, powerwalk the first ten minutes of every single run workout.

• Starting Out Run:Walk Protocol
• Elite Run:Walk Protocol

Both of these are Google Docs.

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I put the key bits of the program into a Google Doc for you.