Chapter 16 "Running Life" - 15 Injury Protection

15 Preventive Protection how to keep everything normal A good diet alone won't guarantee smooth sailing on your run.As noted earlier, running can make the body uncomfortable, cause fatigue, may cause changes in the body's structure and some functions, and may change the body's chemistry.If any of these effects become severe, it may cause you to interrupt or reduce your running.However, interruptions to running are probably unnecessary, since all but a few injuries are preventable.Perhaps the most convincing evidence is the fact that long-term runners suffer far fewer injuries than first-time runners.One reason is that the body also gets stronger over time.But a much more important reason than that is that older runners have mastered the art of running.

When I first started running, I had one problem after another — chipped toenails, osteophytes, muscle soreness, and Achilles tendonitis.Now, even when I run faster, harder and farther, I rarely feel sore.This will be confirmed by most runners. The typical runner learns mostly from experience—sometimes painful experience.We do hear a few words of caution from friends and from Runner's World, but unless we ourselves have some horrible-sounding condition like chondromalacia of the knees, be very careful about it It is difficult to do. It can be seen that we are powerless, mainly knowing how to avoid or heal some injuries from practice and mistakes.It may be contrary to human nature to use other methods to learn, but this is at least theoretically possible.The suggestions and warnings in this chapter, if you heed them, may save you years of painstaking and painful discovery.

don't be overly nervous After running for a while, it's natural to imagine yourself as indestructible.You run harder and harder, day after day, and a miracle happens every day: you don't break down at all.In this way, you think you can run farther and farther.If so, sooner or later you are bound to damage your muscles, tendons, bones, or your "high" mood. Because you can no longer continue to run more vigorously, unless your running volume increases very little. How much to increase the amount of exercise is appropriate?To a large extent, it depends on how quickly your body recovers after a workout.Some people can do two days of intense exercise and then just rest for one day and feel refreshed.Most of us, however, need more rest—maybe two or three days before we can do this kind of strenuous exercise.The main purpose of doing this is to give your body time to replace what you lost after exercise through rest. (First of all, fatigue is caused by too little blood sugar, too much lactic acid, too little water, too little electrolyte, too little glycogen, and too much heat and metabolic waste in the body. All of these cannot be recovered immediately.)

If you feel self-conscious at times, your grades will not improve.It's easy to know how much rest you need if you pay attention to how you feel.Sometimes, for no apparent reason, you also feel tired and listless.On days like this, once you start running, you'll find that you really don't feel tired at all.You'll feel light on your feet, and your sluggishness will disappear instantly.Sometimes, even after a good warm-up, your legs feel so heavy that you no longer want to run. If this is the case, you should not run hard.You can run slowly and patiently, and remember that better days are coming.

Fatigue is not the result of speed and distance per se, but of running faster and longer than you can comfortably handle.I may run half a mile and get tired, and you may run twenty miles without difficulty.If you feel tired every day, the fatigue will accumulate.One of the first symptoms to show due to the effects of cumulative fatigue is feeling physically unwell.You tend to feel irritable, irritable, and impatient without giving good reasons.Routine work tasks can seem like insurmountable obstacles.Other symptoms of cumulative fatigue are: 1. Pain in joints, muscles, or tendons, especially if it is more severe than usual.

2. Difficulty falling asleep or sleeping restlessly. 3. You are more likely to catch a cold than usual, your lips are more prone to blistering, and your nose is more runny. 4. Always feel thirsty (this is due to dehydration). 5. Feeling tired, especially if you are still tired after a good night's sleep. If you only have one of the above symptoms, then there is nothing to worry about.However, if you have two or more symptoms, you are almost certainly burnt out.The remedy is to relax temporarily.Stop running for a day, or cut your running distance in half for two or three days.First of all, don't run fast, wait until your energy and enthusiasm are restored, and then resume normal running.

If you participate in a race, especially a long-distance race, you will still feel tired for days after the race.You may think that you're feeling great, but fatigue is lurking in your body, giving you colds, muscle damage, or worse. The archenemy of proper exercise, quite possibly, is dogmatism.Once we have a systematic life plan in place, we are reluctant to change it.For example, if we decide to run two miles and end up running only one mile, then we mentally perceive it as a sign of weakness.Perhaps, however, it wasn't a lack of willpower that was the best thing to do. Running should pay attention to the effect

In Chapter 19, I talked about running with Bill Roger, the world's best marathon runner. Watching him run is like watching an exquisitely designed machine in operation: every part is very coordinated. . While this is a wonderful running form, it would be foolish for you and me to try to imitate Rogers' running form.Because the quality of our body is different from his, the joints of our bones are also different, and the center of gravity of each part of our body is also different.If we're trying to imitate Rodgers's, or someone else's running form.That is tantamount to doing something against our own body and increasing the risk of injury.The only sensible way to run is your own way, no matter how different it may be from the standard way in the textbook.First of all, don't land on your toes like a sprinter.If you do that, you'll almost certainly injure your Achilles tendon.Instead, you should land on your heels and finally push off the ground with your toes.

Most beginners run with their arms raised too high. When they finally run with their arms lowered so that their forearms are roughly parallel to the ground, they will find it more coordinated to run.As you run, try putting your arms in various positions to see what works best until you find one that seems most natural.Once you've found the right spot, there's no need to experiment.Your running posture, like your voice and fingerprints, cannot be changed very much. Fortunately, there is no need to change, because a natural and relaxed posture-this is the most comfortable posture-is The best running form that makes you least prone to injury.

wear good quality shoes Don't save money on shoes. Good quality shoes have at least three benefits.Because this kind of shoe fits well, your feet are the least prone to blisters: Because the cushions of the shoes are properly placed, they can absorb shocks, and because the heels of the shoes are very strong, they are the least likely to tilt to one side, thereby reducing the fatigue of the leg muscles. If you must save money, you can wear cropped blue trousers instead of gym shorts, or an old shirt with the sleeves cut off instead of a sweatshirt, but don't save money on shoes. take care of your feet

You wear running shoes, each of which has about 30 square inches of surface area, but only a few square inches of area at a time.So with your weight repeatedly focused on a spot not much bigger than a puppy's paw, it's no wonder that two feet can cause trouble for runners -- blistered feet, bruised toenails, pain, and occasionally even Osteoarthritis occurs.Fortunately, many, if not most, of these injuries are preventable, primarily by wearing the right footwear.Pads can be custom designed by a podiatrist if necessary (see Chapter 16).Several other methods of everyday protection are also important. Trim your toenails often.When your foot hits the ground, the foot tends to move in the shoe, so that the toes move forward. If the toenails grow too long, they will bear the brunt of the impact when the foot hits the ground, which will make you feel uncomfortable. It hurts, and the toenails turn black and eventually fall off.While it doesn't feel as bad as it sounds, there's no way you'll win a beauty pageant if you have this condition on your feet. As soon as your feet get blisters, you have to pay attention and try to deal with the blisters when they are very small.While these blisters won't stop you from continuing to run, they do require your attention.Put on first aid ointment, then tape it on, and after five or six days take the tape off; it's usually healed and there's nothing wrong with it, and as soon as you find a part of your foot that usually gets blisters, you'll be right there. Apply a little tincture of benzoin to the skin in that area to firm it up a bit, and apply a generous amount of petroleum jelly to each such area before running.Also, rotating between different sneakers every other day can help. The longer you run, the less blistering your feet will be.But there's always the danger of blisters when the pavement gets hot, or when you put on a new pair of shoes for a run.So, you have to be vigilant and keep an eye out for signs of bubbling. Need to stretch before you run In the fifth chapter, we have already talked about some simple preparatory exercises that beginners need to do.After you've been running for a few weeks, your muscles are getting stronger, which calls for a more holistic approach to exercise.There are two reasons for this: First, as noted in Chapter 3, running does not do much for building flexibility.As a result, runners need more of this workout than most athletes.Second, running strengthens certain muscles, however, it also weakens their antagonists—the muscles that oppose the muscles in which they are being exercised. These antagonistic muscles must be strengthened in order to prevent potentially damaging muscular imbalances. The best all-round gymnastics for stretching the limbs is the six-section gymnastics popularized by Dr. George Sheehan, who recommends the following gymnastics: 1. To stretch your calf muscles and Achilles tendons, you can stand three feet away from a wall or tree, with your feet straight together, and your body bent forward until your legs feel a little uncomfortable Up to ten seconds, and then relax, so repeated five or six times.If you suffer from chondromalacia of the knee (a knee disease covered in the next chapter), this type of gymnastics can be painful for you.In this case, you can make a helpful change.You lie flat on the floor, put a few pillows under the affected knee, put weight on that foot, and straighten the leg.In this way, the stress on the knee joint can be greatly reduced. 2. To stretch your hamstrings—the muscles on the back of your thighs—stand up straight on both legs and place one foot on a table at waist height, or on something lower if you can't reach that height , bend your head toward your knees until you feel a tight stretch in your leg muscles and stop for ten seconds.If you prefer, hold your leg or foot with your hands to stabilize your own body, then relax.Repeat five or six times for each leg. (Physiotherapist Ted Corbett says he thinks the following exercise is more effective: Bend your knees, bend your body, touch the floor with your hands, then prop your ten fingers on the ground, and push your body up until you feel your Stop when your hamstrings are tense, hold for a few seconds, lift your hands off the ground, and slowly straighten your body, vertebra by vertebra, until you stand upright. Repeat this method five or six times Second-rate.) 3. In order to stretch the lower part of the back and the hamstring tendons, lie on your back on the ground, straighten your arms, put them on your sides, straighten your knees, lift your legs above your head, and lower them as much as possible , if possible, let the two feet touch the ground behind you, hold on for ten seconds, then relax, and repeat five or six times. 4. To strengthen your shin muscles, sit on the edge of a table and hang a five-pound weight on the bottom half of your foot, next to the toes. (Empty paint cans with stones on them are great.) Then slowly lift your toes, hold for a few seconds, and do this repeatedly until you feel tired. 5. To strengthen your quadriceps, you sit on the table again and strap your weight on the toes of one foot.This time, however, straighten your knees and lift the weight up, hold it for a few seconds, then lower it, five or six times with each leg. 6. Finally, to strengthen your abs (the muscles opposite your very strong back muscles), do some twenty reps of crunches with your knees bent, as described earlier.Either hold your head with your hands (the hardest position to do), or reach over the top of your head (the easiest position to do).However, no matter which position you use, you should start your crunch with your chin tucked in and your body rolled up off the ground to maximize the use of your abs. An increasing number of runners are adopting yoga exercises (Yoga is a school of ancient Indian philosophy with mystic elements, which emphasizes methods of practice such as breath adjustment and meditation. Some people imitate this method and create a kind of gymnastics called Yoga) to stretch the body.Saluting the sun (which is covered in most books on yoga) is an especially good, well-rounded routine.However, even if yoga exercises are used to stretch the limbs, the last three exercises mentioned above should also be used as auxiliary exercises for yoga exercises to strengthen the parts that need to be strengthened. have enough sleep Runners need to get enough sleep.If you don't get enough sleep, you'll soon feel more and more tired, leaving you listless, unenthusiastic and prone to colds.Sometimes the schedule of work tasks and chores, late-night TV shows and daily runs can make it difficult to find enough sleep.In this case, if you can manage it, turning off the TV half an hour earlier can do wonders. to eat properly The previous chapter covered some scientific guidelines, but some guidelines are just common sense.For example, don't eat for a few hours before your run. If you eat, you'll feel heavy when you start your run.That's because your digestion takes the energy you used to run.Before a run, avoid large chunks of hard-to-digest food, which will fill you up, but they won't give you the energy you need.Eat less fat because fat is harder to digest than protein or carbohydrates.Also don't eat a lot of fresh fruit, prunes, etc., otherwise, these things will chase you to stop running when you least want to stop running.First things first: don't get fat It's good to be as thin as possible for two reasons. First, you'll run better if you're thinner.The lighter you are, the faster you can run.Second, the lighter you are, the less tired your body's cartilage, joints, and muscles feel.A simple calculation shows why.For every mile you run, your feet hit the ground about 1,600 times.If you weigh 175 pounds, the cumulative impact of landing on the ground is a total of 280,000 pounds.But if your weight is reduced to 150 pounds, the cumulative impact force is reduced to 240,000 pounds—that's 20 tons less weight per mile. To avoid chapping Runners quickly learn what areas are usually prone to chapping.The areas most often prone to cracking are the lips, nipples, crotch, and underarms.Before running, dab these areas with a dab of petroleum jelly, which usually prevents chapping, and tape over your nipples—especially before a long run like a marathon, as this area is subject to friction— - Can prevent painful friction. (By the way, chapping is just as common in summer as it is in winter, and wearing a wet tracksuit can create almost the same conditions as a wet summer.) to prevent frostbite Chapter 12 offers some advice on what to wear when running in cold weather.Cold weather shouldn't be a problem if these recommendations are followed meticulously.However, because your face is usually exposed no matter how cold the weather is, beware of frostbite on your face when it is windy and cold.Put some Vaseline on your face.Some runners carry a ski mask for running against the wind in cold weather.When the wind is blowing from your back, you can put the mask away and put it in your pocket, or insert it on your belt. In spite of the foregoing precautions, if you still run into trouble, look to the next chapter for some advice—and take comfort, if you need it.