Preventing Running Injuries: Why The Supporting Work Matters

Injuries are a fact of active life. There is no physical pursuit that is 100% risk free, and we need to accept this as people who exercise. Knowing that injuries will happen and accepting the risk is great, but we don’t need to train blindly. We know there are many ways to reduce injury risk: warming up properly, cooling down, regularly doing accessory exercises, and choosing programming that cycles up and down in intensity and volume. 

The problem with most running programs is that they focus only on running. They don’t guide you through your warm-ups or cool-downs. They might suggest starting with a few minutes of conversation-paced running, but that isn’t enough. Runners don’t necessarily help themselves out here; many of us just put on our shoes and go. 

We’ve all heard we should be strength training and doing accessories, but many don’t. This is an issue because injuries take us out of consistent training, and consistency is the key to achieving goals. Also, injuries just suck, and if we can avoid them, we should.

Here is how I want to address this with HWPO RUN:

Warm-ups:

Your warm-up needs to accomplish a few goals to give you the best shot at longevity in running.

1. Heart Rate Elevation. Get the heart pumping, breathing rate increased, and create heat. This is what most programs focus on, but it isn’t everything.
   
   

2. Muscle Activation/Mobility. We want to get our muscles primed to work as they should. To do this, we need to activate the specific muscles we will use. We also want to make sure we can achieve the positions we need while running.
   
   

3. Technique Primer. On speed work or threshold sessions, you need to remind your body what it should be doing while moving fast. The primer helps to emphasize a particular focus for the day.
   
   

4. Intensity Ramp. Particularly on speed sessions, we don’t want to go from conversational pace to sprinting. We need to ramp up that intensity over time to give your body a chance to feel good at speed. 

Cool-downs:

Just getting in your car and driving home probably isn’t the winning strategy. Here is my ideal cooldown:

1. Gradual Heart Rate Decrease. Slowly, we want to bring your heart rate down to below 100 bpm. This can be achieved with a recovery walk, jog, or by hopping on a machine. This stage also helps us transition from a glycolytic to an aerobic state, allowing us to begin clearing waste products, such as lactate.
   
   

2. Light Movement and Reprofusion. Now that we are back in aerobic metabolism, we want to get blood flow to the muscles that were just fatigued. Generally, I target the calves, quads, and hamstrings here. By moving slowly and getting blood flow in, we kickstart the recovery process.
   
   

3. Mobility and Breathing. As we continue to cool down, this is a great spot to work on specific mobility issues. Work out those tight hip flexors, hamstrings, or calves. While doing this, take deep, slow breaths to help you return to a resting state.

Accessories:

We have covered what to do immediately before and after your running session; we also need to tackle what to do to support your running. Accessories can include anything from plyometrics to strength training. A good program will build you up across several weeks, then switch exercises and do that again. 

Here are the categories we focus on in HWPO RUN:

1. Lower Body Strength
2. Core Stability
3. Plyometrics
4. Single Leg Strength
5. Lower Leg and Foot Stretch

Each of these categories works to support your body and make you a stronger, more resilient runner.

We want to emphasize the way you support your running, just as much as your running itself. I know warming up is boring. I know you are busy and trying to fit your runs around your schedule. But I also know you love to run, and getting hurt takes you away from that. 

You can implement what I have given you here in your own training, or you can give HWPO RUN a try to see how I implement this. 

My goal is to help more runners stay healthy and achieve their goals, and I hope this blog helps, whether you follow my program or not. 

Happy running, don’t die!