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To avoid injuries very often it can be enough to have a good running setup.
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For example, it is best to perform short, frequent strides with midfoot landing because they distribute impact better, reducing stress on the heel and legs.
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Surfaces with pronounced transverse slope, which can cause asymmetry and overloading, are to be avoided, preventing physical discomfort.
And more…
Runningmeans using your body and thus subjecting it to a certain amount of effort. It is undeniable that such physical activity subjects joints and muscles to work that inactivity would not, but it is equally true that running well-that is, following a few simple steps-reduces or cancels the chances of injury. In fact, most of the aches and pains that can result from running are due to improper running settings or the wrong shoes. When you hear that running means accelerating the aging of the body or even, inevitably, getting hurt, you reply that you get hurt if you run badly, not if you just run. How to avoid the most common injuries or even simple discomforts that result from incorrect running settings? Just pay attention to a few but very important details.
1. Wrong position
It is the queen of causes that can generate various physical problems. To understand why, imagine that the body is a machine (which indeed, in many ways, it is) composed of parts that must be in constant balance with each other. When you run, for example, the advancing arm is always the opposite of the advancing leg because it has to balance the change in whole-body attitude caused by the leg shift, balancing it out. Each part in short is related to its symmetrical and opposite. Suffice it to say that when you have pain, for example, in your left knee, the problem might generate from your right leg. Your left side in short overcharges to compensate for a weakness of the right side. What form of running to take then? You need to keep your head, shoulders and torso aligned as much as possible and slightly reclined forward to help with forward movement and also to better penetrate the air. It is clear that you cannot achieve an aerodynamic penetration coefficient of a Ferrari, however, it is also true that if this alignment falls exactly vertically on your pelvis or, worse, backwards (a bit like in cartoons, when characters run) you are putting too much resistance to the air ahead of you. Think of it this way: a slight incline helps you lean forward a bit to invite your body to the run and allows you to penetrate the air better, putting up less resistance.
2. Stretching the pace too far
Without delving too deeply into how to place your foot on the ground (I encourage you to read this article to learn more), imagine what happens when you overstride your stride: the first part of your foot that touches the ground is your heel, and it is also the part that, when in contact with the ground, will restrain you rather than allow you to transition forward. The shorter and more frequent the strides, the more you land midfoot (i.e., with the middle and forward part of the foot) and thus the less you brake the run. Another benign effect of midfoot running is that it increases the surface area of the foot in contact, allowing better distribution of impact to the entire sole and then to the rest of the leg, which is then better able to absorb strain over its entire length and not just in the heel area.
3. Choose a surface with low cross slope.
This is not really a setting error but can be a cause of discomfort and injury: running on a surface with excessive transverse elevation difference can in fact cause the feet to rest on different elevations for a prolonged period, causing the legs to work on different lengths. In other words, it is as if one leg is shorter than the other because it rests on a higher plane,and vice versa for the opposite one. In the long run this creates an asymmetry that the body tries to remedy by loading the “long” leg more. Where can you find such surfaces? For example, the verges of roads that are particularly “hump-backed,” that is, with a pronounced cross slope of the two roadways. Every road has two slopes (like a very flattened roof, because it has to allow rainwater to drain to the verges) but in some cases this shape is very pronounced and your body will not fail to notice it. How to avoid it? Well, changing paths.
4. Hunching the shoulders
Running with shoulders open is most important for at least two reasons: it promotes proper breathing by letting the lungs “open up” and it prevents back problems. Why do some people tend to arch their backs downward while running? The most common cause is poor core training (which is so important, is easy to do and prevents many injuries) that fails to balance the forces generated in the torso during running. As we saw earlier, the upper body is not inactive during running but is constantly engaged in balancing the movements of the legs. It does this automatically but if it is not sufficiently trained it will tend to shut down, straining and twisting unnecessarily. How to avoid it? Doing core stability exercises.
5. Pulling the neck
It is a phenomenon related to the previous one and is manifested by advancing the head too far in relation to the neck and torso, literally putting it overhanging the shoulders and generating a lot of strain on them. In fact, the head is one of the heaviest parts of the body, and carrying it too far forward means that all the muscles in the back are busy preventing … it from sliding down the cliff. That’s why in point one I was stressing the importance of head/neck/shoulder alignment: the less the head is unbalanced forward, the less the rest of the upper torso (especially the shoulder and back muscles) will struggle to hold it in place. To avoid this, it is important, as with the shoulders in the previous point, to do core exercises and check how you are holding it in relation to the rest of the torso. Running naturally has a form, and the more correct it is the less the body will strive to compensate for any imbalances generated by incorrect positions of some of its parts. While it is true that this sport primarily develops the legs, it is also true that the entire rest of the body is engaged in it. This is often forgotten, and we pay the consequences. Next time you run remember that you are doing it with your whole body, not just your legs. And do it with your head. (partially inspired by Running Magazine)