Injury Prevention for Runners - Part 2

Continued from Part 1 (where I shared about Piriformis syndrome), here I continued with information about other common injuries caused by running (frankly I myself suffered from all these problems before). As before click on the hyperlinks to find out more in-depth details. So let me start this Part II with the Iliotibial Band Syndrome or the ITB Syndrome, one of the leading cause of lateral knee pain in runners:

Iliotibial Band Syndrome

Signs and Symptoms: Pain/ tenderness on the outside part of the knee or lower thigh, often worsened by weight bearing movements such as going up or down stairs, or getting out of a car.

Possible cause: Running too much, too soon, without sufficient fitness; a tight ITB which is brought on by 'bowing' the knees and/or foot pronation or flat feet, (which can turn the lower limb inwards).

How to prevent: Stretch the ITB; run shorter distance; avoid running too much up or down hill; gradually build up your training program to avoid overdoing it too soon.

How can Pilates help:
Doing Pilates regularly help maintain the ratio between the length and strength of the muscles around the hip, particularly the gluteus medius and deep rotators.

Runner's Knee (Patellofemoral Pain)

Signs and Symptoms: Pain (maybe vague and non-specific) after exercise or long period of sitting; small swelling in the knee, feeling of muscle giving way; feeling of knee-cap 'giving-way' or knee joint movement restriction.

Possible cause: Imbalance of quadriceps muscles; over-training, -bending, -squatting and -kneeling may lead to the vastus medialis (one of the quadriceps) muscle wasting away meaning that the patellar bone drifts outwards and causes friction against the outside of the femur(thigh) bone; bow legs; knock knees; turning of shin outwards when running; misalignment of the lower limb; foot pronation/ flat feet; tension in ITB.

How to prevent:

Strengthen the quadriceps, particularly the vastus medialis oblique (the muscle inside inside your knee).

How can Pilates help: Pilates helps keep good sense of balance in the muscles (especially the single leg balance exercises) and maintain muscle control through the pelvis and pelvic stability.

Shin Splints

Signs and Symptoms: Pain in the inner side of lower leg, which may stop when u stop the exercise. Eventually the pain continues even after stopping the exercise.

Possible cause: Sudden increase in training; excessive jumping; running on hard surface; knock knee or bow legs (knee mal-alignment); imbalance of muscle in the lower leg especially around the ankles.

How to prevent: Proper footwear; increase flexibility of lower limbs; strengthen the lower limbs

How can Pilates help: Pilates balance and strengthen the lower limbs; impart proper limb alignment during movements.

Read on: Injury Prevention for Runner - Part 3