Prehab and Injury Prevention for Runners at Home

‘Injuries are an inevitable part of exercise’: is this a statement you agree with?

A resignation to sustaining an injury has led to an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ mentality becoming common among amateur athletes. Those that take this approach will find that, sooner or later, they begin to experience pain or suffer an injury. For those people, the above statement is true.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Injuries are not inevitable, and it is certainly possible to exercise and run without suffering one. All you need to do is prepare.

Those running regularly for the first time are at an increased risk of injury, with many unsure how to prevent damage occurring. But they’re not the only ones. Many experienced amateur runners also don’t know how to prepare to avoid injury.

Here, we’re taking a look at ‘prehab’ and the steps you can take at home to prevent injury.

Warming up

Whether it’s the standing quad pull or the classic elevated hamstring stretch, many runners choose to prepare for their workout with a static stretching routine.

It might feel like the right thing to do, and you’ve seen others doing it, but there’s actually little evidence to suggest that static stretches are effective in preparing the body for running.

Instead, introduce dynamic stretching to your warm up. The main difference between static and dynamic stretches is movement. While you remain still and ‘hold’ a static stretch, dynamic stretches are completed in the act of moving and are not held for any period of time.

This movement means dynamic stretches better reflect the stresses and strains running puts on the body and prepare your muscles, joints, and ligaments for the journey ahead.

Be careful, though, not to stretch too far from the outset. Overstretching immediately can cause injury, so be sure to ease into your dynamic stretches, gradually increasing the range of movement as you warm up.

Strength and conditioning

Stretching will increase your range of movement, which can improve your running technique and efficiency. However, if the strength of your joints and muscles has not also increased, your improved mobility will create a weakness. That’s where strength training comes in.

Replicating the action of running in your training is the best way to prepare your body and prevent injuries, and a degree of intensity is necessary. Slow and steady training may be good for endurance, but it won’t condition the tissue to meet the challenge of running. Impact training, however, will.

Skipping and pogo jumps (jumping up and down on the spot) are two good examples of impact training exercises that replicate the strain placed on your ankles and calves during a run. You could also try low-level plyometrics — training that involves the use of jumps, hops, bounds, and/or skips — to achieve similarly beneficial results.

If you feel you have an area of weakness, or you’d like to try more targeted strength training, here are a few exercises we recommend for the body parts integral to safe running.