Being well into your marathon training by now you’ve probably heard of some of the most common running related injuries – patellofemoral pain syndrome, achilles tendinopathy, hamstring strains, plantar fasciitis, medial tibial stress syndrome, iliotibial band syndrome and stress fractures. They can sound daunting, but they don’t have to be.

I have spent over five years working with the British and NATO armed forces seeing MANY overuse injuries, generally related to overload training and running. These service personnel have incredible focus on their goal, and are determined that nothing will stop them from achieving it.

I’ve found this admirable attitude is similar in marathon runners – you’ve put your life on hold and everything into your training and refuse to let a little ‘niggle’ stop you, right? The problem is if that ‘niggle’ is not addressed it could get worse and prevent the day itself being the wonderful experience that you want it to be.

Where many runners go wrong is that their training consists of solely running. It seems to make sense, but the body needs help to adapt to running those kinds of miles for a sustained period of time and on a regular basis. The muscles need to build up strength-endurance.

When muscles fatigue during running they don’t function as efficiently. The work then gets shifted to other areas of the body that are not designed for the role, or are already doing too much, and so injuries occur. Many of the aforementioned injuries can be tracked to one or two biomechanical factors. The stress just gets shifted around the body and where you feel the pain isn’t usually the cause of the problem or where the problem started.

A lot of runners can avoid these injuries with a simple, short general training plan that consists of general mobility, core and strength endurance exercises that are specifically tailored towards running as well as the individual.

It’s also important to be educated on these injuries. Get on top of them now, prevent them becoming something more.

If you would like further information or to book an appointment with Vikki or one of our other practitioners please call Teddington Osteopaths on tel: 020 8977 3295.

“If you change nothing, nothing will change”

Vikki Bradley, MSc BSc FAFS GSR