Rest, recover, and run without the injuries

Injuries. They’re a runner’s worst enemy, with up to 45% having at least one each year.¹

The truth is, sometimes you can focus so much on your run, you forget to tune into your body.

In the long run, the only way to keep going strong is to look after yourself.

From proper rest to active recovery techniques, we share 8 secrets to help you avoid those sore knees, shins, ankles, and feet, so you can unlock your full running potential.

When you’re time poor, it’s tempting to skip a warm-up and simply take it easy on the first kilometre. But a dedicated warm up is important to help reduce your risk of injury.

Warming up before exercise helps to get your blood flowing, gets oxygen into your muscles, reduces muscle stiffness and increases flexibility.

A warm-up routine can be quite simple. Even a 5-minute dynamic stretch including squats, lunges and leg swings can be enough to get your heart pumping and muscles feeling nice and limber.

Crossing that finish line or hitting that milestone feels great, but it may feel even better after a quick cool down.

Why? When we exercise, our blood vessels expand to let more blood flow through. If you abruptly stop exercising, your heart rate drops faster than these vessels can tighten, and it can mean blood starts pooling in your extremities rather than going to your heart and brain. The result is a sudden drop in blood pressure, leading to light-headedness, and the possibility of passing out.²

Before you come to a total stop, try a slow jog for a minute or 2, then a couple minutes of walking.

So, you’ve warmed-up, smashed out a run, and cooled down properly. Nice work. But your recovery is only just beginning.

Hopefully you’ve been hydrating before and during your workout, but it’s especially important to stay hydrated afterwards as well.

Plain water can be suitable to replace fluids after a short training session. But after high intensity exercise or endurance training, any drink with electrolytes will help to restore much-needed fluids and energy. Give your muscles a light stretch (maybe bring in that recovery ball for any extra tight spots). Then, after an hour or so, eat something with protein and complex carbs to aid your muscular recovery.

The hard work’s all done, so now’s the time to invest in rest and recovery.

Recovery doesn’t necessarily mean becoming a couch potato, but you should avoid overworking your muscles and joints to allow them to recover (and ultimately, prevent injury).

A great way to keep moving while letting your body repair is through active recovery. Active recovery is any low-intensity activity, like walking or swimming, that promotes muscle recovery and blood flow to flush out the toxins built up in your muscles from high-intensity training.

For some of you high achievers, rest days might be a strange concept. But a regular day off and active recovery between workouts gives your body critical time to heal, recover, and grow stronger.

Chances are you’ve experienced stitches, body stiffness, or muscle soreness and fatigue. The good news is that these can be minimised, if not prevented.

One universal tip for helping to avoid injury is to incorporate strength training. A strong core, hips and glutes can prevent a range of issues like runner’s knee and hamstring strains, while compound movements like squats and deadlifts can correct any muscular imbalances and improve your stability.

With a holistic training routine, you’ll also become more flexible (and feel less like a plank of wood in the days after your run).

Runners often have pain at the front of the kneecap. Wrapping your knee is one way to provide extra stability, but make sure you don’t go too tight and restrict your blood flow. You can also try using a knee compression sleeve during and/or after your run to provide support and help improve blood flow.

Sore and swollen knees may also be a symptom of tight quads, glutes, and hamstrings. Getting out the foam roller can alleviate some of the pressure on those muscles to reduce those niggles.

If you find yourself getting a stitch at the worst possible time during a run, it could be down to a few things, like dehydration, your stride breathing pattern, or eating and drinking too much beforehand.

The truth is, we don’t entirely know what causes stitches. If you feel a stitch coming on, an effective way to stop it is simply slowing your pace and stretching out your core muscles with deep breathing.

To help prevent stitches while running, always warm up first, and ensure that you are regulating your breathing and breathing deeply while running.

Known as medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS), shin splints are an exercise-induced pain and the bane of many runners. MTSS is a broad term for the pain that occurs on the inside of the tibia, usually from overusing your shins in high-impact exercises (yep, like running).

MTSS can be a symptom of overloading, so the fix might be as simple as reducing the intensity, or load, of your workouts. That doesn’t necessarily mean stopping running altogether, just taking things a bit easier until the symptoms subside. If ignored, the pain may become more intense.

Stretching your calves can also help, but if you find the pain persisting, it’s worth seeing your GP, physio or podiatrist.

Your body knows what it needs. Listen to it and act on it.

What matters is that you learn about yourself and your capabilities, so that when something doesn’t feel quite right, you’re equipped to analyse and address it.

Pushing yourself is what runners do. But pushing too far, too fast, too long, or too intensely can have the opposite effect. If you’re feeling significant pain, rather than discomfort, you might be heading swiftly towards injury land. That’s why it pays to seek professional advice. Getting health insurance that includes extras cover, like physiotherapy, podiatry, and myotherapy, will give you the peace of mind that help is available, should you ever need it.

Remember, there will always be finish lines. But if you look after yourself, there’s no end to a running lifestyle.