Running is one of the easiest ways to try and get fit but unfortunately it is also one of the easiest ways to get injured. As with all movement patterns some people seem to run more efficiently than others and as such have a better economy. They tend to be better performers but also tend to injure themselves less at the same time. 

Our skeletons are often not exact mirror images from left to right and also tend to vary from the text book “ideal” bony alignment. Lots of people have leg length differences or shins that are curved (tibial varum) or rotated (external tibial torsion) for example. These factors can conspire against us by changing the way forces are transmitted through the joints, ligaments and muscle/tendon units in the lower limb. Biomechanical analysis with a Podiatrist is recommended to assess these things.

Like all materials our muscle and skeletal tissues display certain behaviour under stress and strain. Science tells us that controlling the rate of loading and maintaining optimal alignment of our joints is the most important factor in the prevention of injury. When running we are transmitting around 3-4 times our body weight through each leg as we land – 300kg for an average man!  Being able to dampen these forces requires good muscle control and unlike the tibial torsion this is something that, with training we can adapt in order to move more efficiently. 

Our tissues do adapt to stress and learn to tolerate larger forces. We all think of muscles doing this but other skeletal tissues do the same thing albeit slowly. The heart and lungs will adapt relatively quickly to running and allow us to train progressively harder and for longer duration. Our ligaments and bones are not adapting at the same rates and are therefore not as able to tolerate the new amounts of stress that the fitter body is now capable of putting it through. We refer to this as “load history” when we talk to patients about how much running they have done in the build up to injury and over what period of time. Often it is a case of too much too soon. 

Video gait analysis is a vital part of understanding injury mechanisms.  See our podiatrist to get your running technique analysed.