A recent article explains that when you run, the impact is not so much on the knees. Do you believe that the impact of running is focused on your knees?
While running, our knees are often the first part to be injured. But do not disregard other areas, such as the hips and ankles too. Injuries while running depends on the person’s current condition. As a runner, if your ankles have lesser stability than your knees, there is a higher chance to develop ankle injuries rather than knee injuries. Hence, it is hard to conclude that all runners will end up in knee injuries.
Our joints and movements
Every joint of our body is naturally designed to move in different planes in order for us to perform functional activities such as running and walking. This helps different joints of our body to keep lubricated and nourished. However the consequence is the joints will be stressed (wear and tear) by forces. These various stresses received by the joints are also a natural effect and can be countered by taking enough rest for proper regeneration. In other words, balance between activities and rest is essential for us to protect our body and prevent injuries.
Building a Strong Body
Our joints, tissues and organs are capable to adjust for any stresses and demands that the body receives. For example our muscles can naturally be stronger if we will work on it by doing weight lifting. Our bones can be more solid if bone will receive forces from standing posture. Our heart can increase its endurance when a person runs.
Weight lifting, standing and running are examples of stressors of our body however these stressors can benefit our body if it is controlled and regulated. It’s important to have controlled and regulated stresses to prevent injury. This can be learned from medical experts like doctors and physiotherapists.
The Importance of Body Awareness
It is important not only for runners but also for people engaging in different sports, to be mindful about their body’s reaction from whatever activity they have done. Reaction such as pain, fatigue and skin discoloration are some of the few signs that can indicate that you need to take some break. Sports people can also benefit from the advice and programs of the medical teams such as doctor, physiotherapist, and nutritionist, psychologist and even from the sport trainers like coaches and personal trainer.
Proper body awareness is the key to preventing injuries. Achieving this is not easy, but understanding the basic concept of anatomy and physiology can be learned by finding the right physiotherapist and doctor medical team.
Through the right physiotherapy exercises, body awareness gained will help keep your body well lubricated and in top form for any sports you undertake.
We have a running talk coming up end of this month, and our Principal physiotherapist from Physioclinic will discuss about several tips and techniques of proper running during the Optimum Run event organized by Usports.
Go to http://www.usports.com.sg/events/optimum-run/ to find out more about it.
