”Running? That’s easy, just run.” Many people will think so. In fact, running also has to follow the principles, only in accordance with the principles to run, in order to effectively avoid sports injuries on the premise of getting a strong body. There are some basic knowledge that we need to understand first.
Running is inseparable from the knee joint. The knee joint is the most complex joint in the body, where the thigh (femur) and lower leg (tibia) are connected and need to carry most of the body’s weight.
(a) The knee works as if it were a machine, with the muscles as the engine, the ligaments as the drive belts, the meniscus as the shock pad and the joint capsule as the lubrication device.
But the human body is not as simple as a machine. The cushioning of the force on landing is not done by the meniscus alone, but by the contraction and relaxation of the muscles and ligaments in the moment.
Therefore, the higher the strength of the muscles, the more powerful and flexible they are, the less likely they are to be injured. The impact of running is 2-4 times the weight of each landing; the more miles the greater the impact and wear, the longer you run the more likely you are to be injured; the faster you run, the higher the step frequency, the higher the pressure loaded on the knee, so the faster you run the more likely you are to be injured; although the main range of motion of the knee is front and back, there is also a certain degree of outward opening in the left and right, generally 3-5°, which causes lateral impact. But the bone’s main ability to withstand impact is in the front, so incorrect posture can also cause additional impact resulting in injury. Conclusion: The way to avoid running damage to the knee is to reduce wear and tear and impact, and improve the strength of the bones and muscles.
Now, the consensus is there. So, how can you achieve running without hurting your joints? Teach you a few tricks.
1, reduce the speed of training.
The same amount of running, higher speed means greater impact, the possibility of greater damage to the knee.
At the same time higher speed, running posture will be deformed, in order to stretch the pace, improve speed, unconscious legs in the landing without any bending, the loss of muscle cushioning ability through the joint bending, and the impact directly to the knee. This is the reason why many first-time runners are injured in the first 2 months of running with very little running volume.
Although the running volume is only 2-3km per day, but the rush to do their best to run hard, when the muscle protection is not strong enough, they hurt their knees with a huge impact; for long distance running and endurance running, even an experienced runner, the speed training volume usually does not exceed 10% of the total training volume. And there is usually only one interval speed training per week; and first-time runners don’t need to arrange speed training at all.
2.Adjustment of running posture.
Wrong posture
Foot landing position in front of the knee, resulting in the knee joint straight, or even locked (in each stand up, can find the knee joint in the final stage as if stuck up, this is a natural mechanism, in order to increase the stability of standing), at this time there is considerable forward force are through the ground feedback, impact to the knee joint.
When landing, control the position of the ankle as much as possible directly below the knee, or slightly behind. The bend in the knee will provide excellent cushioning.
The foot landing point, whether it is more to the outside, inside or back of the foot, can cause lateral impact on the knee and lead to injury. The foot landing point is controlled as much as possible in the forefoot, especially the center of gravity is best to fall in the forefoot position directly between the big toe and the second toe. This gravity position is a reasonably aligned force point for the leg. An unstable body, swaying from side to side, will allow the position of gravity to change constantly in the lateral direction, giving the knee lateral impact forces.
The knee is most capable of bearing impact in the frontal direction. Therefore, do not over-swing your arms during running, excessive forward stride, because these will cause an increase in physical instability.
3, pay attention to relaxation and stretching
Relaxation before running, the warm-up phase is also necessary. Many sports injuries occur in the early stages of training, when the body has not thoroughly adapted to the state of the sport. The knee and other locations of the joint capsule has not yet secreted lubricating fluid. If you start intensity training at this time is equivalent to the feeling of a car has not yet warmed up, directly began to pull 200 km highway.
Therefore, each run should have a sufficient warm-up before, if you do not want to warm up in place can use the first 1/4 of the mileage of relaxed running, by jogging to warm up. Feel lighter and more coordinated when you do your normal tempo running or interval running training.
Post-run stretching is neglected by many runners, especially after high-intensity training, tired and just want to rush to eat something and take a quick shower to rest. Often skipping stretching sessions.
But stretching is very beneficial to muscle recovery and growth. Muscles do work is achieved by contraction, and the size of the force in addition to muscle dimension there is a very important factor is the contraction amplitude. Many people pay attention to the degree of muscle tightening, but not to the degree of muscle extension. But the contraction amplitude of the muscle is determined by two indicators: maximum contraction and extension.
After training, you can fully extend your muscles, ligaments and even fascia to recover quickly from fatigue. To become more powerful when regenerating.
And long without post-run stretching, muscle extension will become smaller. It will not only affect the size of the stride, but also the running posture.