The name Achilles is said to be a combination of two Greek words that together mean “grief of the people.” The injury that bears that hero’s name, in honor of his only weakness, certainly aggrieves many runners, with Achilles tendinitis accounting for around 10 percent of running injuries.

Technically, Achilles tendinitis is acute inflammation of the tendon that runs along the back of the ankle, says Joe Uhan, a physical therapist, coach, and ultrarunner. Pain in that area for longer than a couple of weeks is not really tendinitis anymore. Athletes, however, tend to characterize any pain along the tendon above the back of the heel as Achilles tendinitis.

Achilles tendinitis can be confused with other injuries, such as heel problems, but the hallmark sign is “if you’re pinching the Achilles and it’s really sore,” says Uhan.

Once you have acute pain, says Phinit Phisitkul, a University of Iowa associate professor in orthopedic surgery, the treatment is pretty much the same as with any acute injury—and not something most runners want to hear: rest, ice, anti-inflammatories.

Some doctors also recommend sleeping with a brace on your foot to allow a state of relaxed dorsiflexion and avoid walking around barefoot (or in high heels) so that your tendon isn’t overly shortened or stretched.

Studies have found one of the most successful treatments involves eccentric strengthening exercises, says Phisitkul. Stand on the edge of a step and lower yourself slowly on your injured foot, essentially exerting force as the muscle extends. Then use your other, non-injured, foot to raise yourself back up, so as not to stress the tendon in the rising motion. Do 15 repetitions, twice a day. However, if the pain is severe, it can be best to rest before easing back into exercises and workouts.

Of course, instead of treating the injury when it’s too late, wouldn’t you rather avoid it in the first place? That can be a little complicated, though, since why you get Achilles tendinitis really depends on what you’re doing.

“It’s almost always an overstriding problem,” says Uhan. When your foot lands in front of your trunk, especially if you land on the forefoot, you end up putting all the weight on your Achilles tendon. “That’s stress your body has to absorb.”

While Uhan says that the most common problem he sees is from overstriding, there are other issues that lead to Achilles injuries as well. Runners who don’t engage their glutes tend to push with their toes instead of with their glute muscles, especially when trying to run fast. That kind of stress can cause inflammation.

Basically anything that stresses your Achilles tendon can lead to Achilles tendinitis if you’re not careful: too much mileage, too many hills, too much speed work without building up appropriately. In fact, there isn’t always an obvious reason why someone might start to suffer from Achilles tendinitis. “Most patients usually don’t have any identifiable source,” says Phisitkul.

Fortunately, the Achilles tendon is the strongest tendon in the body. As long as you’re careful while you ramp up your training, you should be able to keep it healthy and strong. Often Achilles tendinitis manifests first as stiffness in the joint that eventually warms up. If, when you first notice the stiffness, you take preventive measures to increase ankle flexibility and pull back on your mileage, speed work, and hill running, then you can avoid it turning into a serious problem.

To prevent Achilles tendinitis in the first place, it’s important to maintain your flexibility. Stretching can help; just don’t overstretch. Simply spend a minute each day stretching your calf and ankle joint. One of the easiest stretches, says Uhan, is to put one foot on the ground behind the other and push into a wall.

In addition to stretching, using a foam roller and getting regular massage to keep the joint mobile can help prevent any problems from starting.

If you start to feel inflammation in your tendon or have Achilles tendinitis once, it isn’t necessarily the end of the world. Let it rest and recover, which can sometimes take as long as four to six weeks if you waited until the pain was acute.

The real problem is if Achilles tendinitis becomes an ongoing injury. If it keeps recurring, then it’s time for the perpetually injured to examine what they’re doing to cause the problem.

“They need to get their running mechanics analyzed by a professional,” says Uhan, who swears that once you get your foot to land all the way underneath you, then the pain goes away quickly.

The post How to Beat Achilles Tendinitis appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Figuring out how many calories you burn when running is, on a simple level, a fairly straightforward calculation: Most experts (and lots of studies) suggest that a person of average weight burns about 100 calories in a mile of running. That number goes up slightly if you weigh more or if you’re a less efficient runner — both of which require that you use more energy to cover the same distance.

The number of calories doesn’t, however, go up if you run faster. “It doesn’t matter how fast you go,” says , a professor of exercise science and the director of the Wellness Institute and Research Center at Old Dominion University. The amount of calories burned over a mile still remains roughly the same.

Efficient Speed = More Calories in Less Time

Generally speaking, of course, if you run faster you’ll cover more miles in the same amount of time, which equals more calories burned in that time. Think about it: A person running 10-minute miles for an hour covers six miles and burns about 600 calories in this calculation; a person running 6-minute miles for that same amount of time runs 10 miles and burns 1,000 calories.

“It’s a basic metabolic equation,” says Craig Broeder, CEO of Exercising Nutritionally and a research scholar chair in exercise science at Northern Illinois University. For every liter of oxygen you consume, you burn about five calories.

A calorie is defined as the amount of energy used to raise the temperature of one gram of water one degree. In fact, calories used to be determined by measuring how much a person inside a calorimetry chamber warmed the water surrounding them. Over many studies, it was determined that there was a direct relation between the amount of oxygen the person in that chamber consumed and the amount of calories burned. That saves researchers a lot of effort — now they simply measure the amount of oxygen a person consumes and the carbon dioxide they produce.

Technically, though, when it comes to exercise and food, what we refer to as a calorie is really a kilocalorie (equal to 1,000 calories). The problem is that textbooks used to refer to kilocalories by denoting them as Calories, with a capital C. Eventually, Americans just started referring to them as calories and now almost all Americans call them calories, instead of kilocalories.

“Of course, it’s ridiculous,” says Swain. “We’re the only country in the world that does it.”

Really, then, the simple answer is that you burn about 100 kilocalories per mile of running — which Americans often refer to as calories — and that number will vary somewhat depending on your size, efficiency and individual differences. That 100 kilocalories is actually net energy burn, or the amount of energy over your baseline metabolism, since we’re always burning calories, even when we’re just sitting — which is part of the reason reality is more complicated than that simple answer.

Walking < Running

The calories-per-mile rule of thumb changes slightly for walking. A study done by researchers at Syracuse found that men burned about 105 kilocalories/mile on average running a mile in 9 minutes and 30 seconds, and about 52 calories when walking the same mile in 19 minutes. For the women in the study, that burn was 91 and 43 calories, respectively.

“Walking is entirely different,” says Swain. “They’re two different modes of movement.”

Running technically involves jumping from foot to foot to propel yourself forward, while both feet never leave the ground in walking. Obviously, there is a crossover at points of very fast walking and very slow running. In fact, some studies suggest that walking faster than 12-minute miles actually burns more calories than running a 12-minute mile.

Residual Burn on the Return to Rest

The extra complicating factor is that, although the amount of calories you burn per mile doesn’t change fundamentally whether you’re running fast or slow, the amount of calories you burn in the aftermath does change.

“The person who ran the mile faster will always have a greater residual calorie expenditure,” explains Broeder.

You are always burning a base level of calories, even at a resting state. After running fast, your heart rate is elevated and you’re breathing hard. You’re not at a resting state, and so you’re burning more calories than you would otherwise. That’s less the case after running a slow mile.

“You don’t instantaneously return to a resting state,” says Swain.

One study, Broeder says, suggests that if you burn 720 calories running at 80 percent of your VO2 max, as opposed to burning 720 calories running slower at 60 percent of your VO2max, your base rate of calorie burning will be elevated by 15–25 percent for up to 24 hours. Other studies have been less conclusive in the number, but consistently find that more intense exercise leads to a greater after-burn effect.

However, if your goal is to burn calories or lose weight, you have to weigh the options. Generally, a non-elite runner can only do a really intense running workout maybe once or twice a week at risk of getting injured from the . Or, you risk burning out and not being able to do as much running, which then actually burns less calories.

“It’s a trade-off,” Broeder says.

So, how many calories does running burn? It’s not as simple as it seems.

Originally published March 2015.

The post How Many Calories Does Running Burn? appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

When I was in high school, I would often find myself in the middle of a run suddenly so debilitated by pain in my lower side that I’d simply end up walking home or seeking refuge in a local gas station to wait it out. Eventually, the pain — a side stitch — would pass. Over time, it passed so entirely I haven’t been bothered by one in years.

But I am not alone in being temporarily crippled by the side stitch—or in having it disappear without explanation. Studies have found that nearly 70 percent of runners will get a side stitch in a given year, and swimmers and horseback riders see similarly high rates. Yet the causes of the ailment, as well as treatments for it, are still relatively mysterious.

“It just shows up when it wants to show up,” says Dr. AJ Gregg, head of Sport Center in Arizona. Gregg has treated a number of elite athletes for side-stitch pain.

Like many runners afflicted with these unexplained pains, I concocted my own theories: It’s all about breathing patterns. You simply need to get in better shape. Is it just me, or do side stitches seem to come on when I change running speeds back and forth?

“It is just you,” says Dr. Darren Morton, a senior lecturer at Avondale College in Australia, in response to that last speculation.

Morton is the leading—and, in many ways, the only—researcher on side stitches, which are academically referred to as “exercised-induced temporary abdominal pain,” or ETAP for short.

One of the main reasons that Morton could be considered the only major researcher in the field is that there simply hasn’t been that much research done on side stitches, or ETAP. Most runners who are bothered by a side stitch would never visit a doctor for the problem.

“It’s more of a nuisance in a lot of cases, than life-threatening,” explains Gregg.

Varied Symptoms, Multiple Theories

Side stitches have also been hard to study because of their transient nature and lack of definition. What exactly constitutes ETAP? Some people get the pain in their side. Some get it more toward the middle of the abdomen. Some are high in the abs; some are low. Many people also confuse side stitches and , though those two things are very different.

The lack of research has led to wild speculation. But many of those theories, largely based on anecdotal evidence, are now being disproven.

For years, it was theorized that side-stitch pain was related to stress of the diaphragm muscles. But studies have found that ETAP occurs even in activities with low respiratory demands on the diaphragm and having a side stitch doesn’t result in limited lung capacity. Other theories suggested that side stitches were connected to gastrointestinal distress or to stress on the ligaments around the stomach and liver. The current operating theory, though, is that these stitches are caused by irritation of the parietal peritoneum.

“We have not proved what causes stitches but I am 99 percent confident that it is the parietal peritoneum,” Morton contends.

Think of the parietal peritoneum as a membrane corset that wraps around the center of your body and abdomen, says Gregg. As you fatigue and your body breaks down, your core muscles fatigue and your back muscles over-engage. The muscles in the back directly press on nerves that are felt in your abdomen and side (and sometimes even in your shoulder tip). The result is that irritating pain in your side.

What is also becoming more clear is that the side stitch does not necessarily discriminate based on ability—elite runners just might be more equipped at dealing with the pain and be more thorough about eliminating potential risk factors. Olympic bronze medalist during the 2104 Rock n’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon— a race in which she shattered the Masters half-marathon world record. About 2–5 percent of the athletes who come into Gregg’s office are there because of side-stitch pain, and most of those seeking help are elite runners.

But the fact that Deena Kastor might be getting the same pain you get doesn’t do much good when you’re crippled in the middle of a race, especially since there’s no known immediate solution.

“There does not seem to be any consistent method for relieving them other than to stop exercise,” says Morton.

It’s like the old and annoying joke:

— “Doctor it hurts when I do this.”

— “Well, have you tried not doing that?”

In the middle of a race, that is not what you want to hear, nor is it helpful advice.

Trial and Error Treatments

Gregg works on trouble-shooting with athletes to figure out what helps them with the pain or why they might be predisposed to it. “It can take a little trial and error,” he says.

Eating and drinking large amounts within the two hours before running has been correlated with some side-stitch pain, so Gregg always starts by advising athletes to eat a little further out from their workout. And, if athletes have reactions to specific foods, then that’s also something to rule out.

Practicing deep breathing exercises, slowing down your breathing or adopting a deep and rhythmic breathing pattern has been found to sometimes help relieve side stitches. Some find relief by switching which foot they land on when they exhale, or alternating sides with an —e.g. 3 steps in/2 steps out. While side stitches are no longer believed to be originating in the diaphragm, these things can still help relieve the stress on the muscles across your back and abs.

Once a side stitch strikes, many runners also subscribe to the method of grabbing their side where it hurts. This has shown some success, partially because it works in a similar way to a core stabilizer or belt, and holds the muscles in place. Stretching the affected side or bending forward can also help relieve the muscles in the back that are pushing on the nerve that’s causing the pain.

These are all classic treatments that Gregg often recommends an athlete try, but when it comes to proof in the form of quantifiable results from research, he admits, “I have no idea if it actually helps.”

If the theory of parietal peritoneum irritation is accurate, then the best thing to prevent side stitches is to strengthen your core muscles so they don’t break down as you fatigue, or to focus on activating and engaging those core muscles when running. Gregg will sometimes suggests an athlete take an anti-inflammatory in advance to help relieve potential nerve irritation.

As a last resort, you could just wait a few years. Side stitches have been found to be very common among teens, but far less common as you age—theoretically because the surface area of the peritoneum is proportionally larger in teenagers. See, getting older does have its perks.

Originally published July 2015

The post Solving The Mystery of Side Stitches In Runners appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Rowers, known for their big arms, and runners, many with debatable upper-body strength, would seem to have little in common. But, there’s actually a lot runners can learn from rowers.

Rowing doesn’t just work your arms—a major misconception—it works all of the major muscle groups, says Josh Crosby, a former member of the U.S. National Rowing team. It targets the glutes, hamstrings, quads, core, back, shoulders and, of course, arms.

“It’s the ultimate cross-training,” Crosby says. Along with training athletes and creating Indo-Row, a nationwide indoor-rowing fitness program, Crosby has used rowing to train for triathlons and adventure races. Increasingly, runners are doing indoor-rowing workouts for cross-training and injury rehab. Rowing offers a low-impact aerobic (or anaerobic) alternative to running, with most of the fitness gains transferring easily.

“It gives you the ability to preserve your body a little bit,” says Shane Farmer, founder of . That can be good for recovery workouts or for hard intervals. Both Crosby and Farmer say they’ll sometimes have their athletes do one day of running intervals and one day of rowing intervals, allowing them to go hard without wrecking their legs.

“You’re able to really go after it without feeling it the next day,” Crosby says. In addition to serving as low-impact cross-training, rowing also works all the different major muscle groups. And, Crosby says the “dynamic range of motion that comes with the rowing action helps develop functional flexibility—something most runners are lacking.”

How To Use A Rowing Machine

At many gyms, the indoor rower remains a mysterious device, devoid of instruction. The key, Crosby says, is to keep it simple.

— Climb onto the seat and sit as far forward as possible.

— Put your feet in the foot plates, which can be adjusted.

— At the front of the stroke, your hips should be slightly behind your shoulders, with a tall, straight posture.

— Before you get started, brace and engage your stomach. “Think about getting punched in stomach,” says Farmer.

— First, push back with your legs. Second, pull back with your core (moving from one o’clock to 11 o’clock). And, very last, pull your arms in.

— The stroke’s ratio should be a 1:2 count. Quick on the push/pull, slow on the recovery.

— To return, simply reverse the order of events.

Sample Rowing Workout

Set your monitor so you can see your stroke rate, split time (the time it takes to row 500 meters, a common interval in rowing) or MPH.

Warm-up: 3:00 at easy intensity, 22–24 strokes/minute; then 3:00 as 1:00 easy (24 strokes/minute), 1:00 medium (26 strokes/minute), 1:00 hard (28 strokes/minute) and keep an eye on the split time or MPH to gauge your intensity; use that as a reference for the rest of the workout.

Workout: 6:00 as 2:00 easy, 2:00 medium, 2:00 hard — try to match or beat your reference numbers from the warm-up.

1:00 break: Do core work on the machine by leaning back until your abs are challenged and then sit up.

Workout: 6:00 as 2 x [1:00 easy, 30 seconds medium, 30 seconds hard].

Cool-down: 2:00 easy, focusing on form.

The post Cross-Training 101: Row Your Way To A Better Run appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Life hacks have become so ubiquitous that there’s now a blossoming debate about whether they have a place at all in endurance sports, where doing the work and going through the process is probably part of why you started running in the first place.

Running is a journey. It’s not about the destination. But that doesn’t mean we can’t make enjoying that journey a little easier. Think of these as eight tips and tricks for getting out there on your own journey and solving some of the problems along the way.

 Shower in your running clothes

After a run, your clothes can be pretty sweaty and even smelly. Instead of throwing them in the laundry bin, though, try jumping right into the shower still dressed (minus the shoes). Then hang up your clothes to dry and finish your shower. Giving a rinse to quick-drying workout allows you to get three or four uses out of a pair of shorts or a shirt before they need a full laundering.

“It sounds gross, but it actually works very well,” says Matt Frazier, author of No Meat Athlete. It also means you can get by with just one running outfit when you’re traveling.

Sleep in your running clothes

“It seems like such a minor thing,” said Frazier, but when getting out the door is an obstacle, eliminating each little thing—including getting dressed—makes starting your run easier. “It’s one less thing to do, one step closer to getting out the door.”

If that sounds too weird, a simpler step is just to completely lay out your running clothes before you go to bed. Anything that means fewer things to think about makes it just a little easier to get going.

Don’t just wear wicking running shirts on hot days

Generally we just throw on our running clothes and head out the door. But on hot days that can be counter-productive.

Doug Hay, who co-hosts a podcast with Frazier on running hacks, actually suggests wearing a cotton shirt instead on a hot day—if you can’t go shirtless. Wicking material is designed to take sweat away from your body, but a cotton shirt holds the sweat and sticks to your body, which can actually make you feel cooler.

To trick your brain and body, you can also stick a wet shirt in the freezer and grab it before your run. And cooling off your head can make you feel colder, even if it doesn’t do much to actually cool you down. Stick ice in your hat or a cold wet cloth on your head.

Wear pantyhose under your socks

If you get bad blisters, some athletes find putting pantyhose feet on under their socks smooths away the irritating points and decreases the odds of blistering.

Tie key into shoe or ponytail holder

Carrying a key can also be a necessary annoyance. (After all, you do need to get back in your house or car when you’re done running.) While sticking things in your sports bra is a tried-and-true method for female runners, there are plenty of other places to stash that key too.

If you don’t have pockets, tie the key into your shoelace so you don’t lose it or have to carry it. Or, you can even knot it into your ponytail holder, if you have a particularly thick ponytail.

Get creative with your food

Now that you’re dressed and ready to go, you have to navigate one of the more complicated parts of running: nutrition. But don’t let eating and drinking overwhelm you. Don’t even worry about food on runs shorter than an hour, especially if you’re running first thing in the morning.

If you’re doing a long, long run and like to carry whole foods or fruits—like Frazier and Hay do—you can use a standard hydration vest or pack and pull the hydration bladder out. That’ll create plenty of room to stuff your pack with food and you can carry a handheld water bottle or refill it as you go.

Hay also likes to eat dates on runs for their nutritional value, though he also recommends gummies if you like chews or gels but are looking for something easier to swallow. And some people will mix grapes with chews (frozen grapes on hot days).

Dump salt pills into your water bottle

Hay and Frazier are also big believers in breaking open the salt pills or tablets you might take on long runs and dumping the salt into your water bottle. That way your tongue is able to sense how much salt you’re taking in and give feedback in a regulatory loop.

“We shouldn’t bypass our body’s own feedback mechanism,” said Frazier.

Schedule your run into your day

One of the biggest hacks we all need is a surefire way to fit everything into our day efficiently. Often, getting in a run is the first thing to be sacrificed. To avoid that, schedule it in to your calendar, like a meeting, and set calendar alerts for your upcoming run. Make your run fit in however much time you have—even if that’s only 20 minutes.

And you can multi-task with your runs: Try run commuting with a small backpack and a change of clothes. Schedule low-key running meetings if you have co-workers or colleagues who also want to get in some exercise. Or make your runs another kind of family time with your significant other, kids, or dog. Just getting it done, however you can, is the biggest hack of all.

The post Eight Hacks To Make Your Running More Efficient And Enjoyable appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

At the end of a long hard run, you expect your legs and lungs to be burning, but your upper back? No way.

Unfortunately, “it’s a very common thing,” says Nick Studholme, a sports chiropractor in Colorado. As the intensity and length of a run increases, many runners will often experience a worsening sharp pain in their upper back, in between or under the shoulder blades. It’s not quite debilitating, but it sure is painful and annoying.

The Cause of Back Pain

It’s particularly common in novice runners, says physical therapist Ben Shatto, but it can happen to anyone with poor technique or weak back muscles. And that’s most of us.

“Most people don’t get coaching on technique,” says Studholme, so we often have flaws in our form, which worsen as we fatigue.

As we get tired, our head tends to lean ahead of our body. This is generally for two reasons, says Studholme. Either we’re fatiguing and hyperextending the lower back, which leads to jutting the head forward. Or we’re essentially doing the opposite and slouching. Either way, once our head is in front of our body it puts pressure and weight on our upper back.

“It’s like a bowling ball on a stick,” says Shatto. That bowling ball is easier to hold when it’s straight up and down. But if you’re trying to hold it out at an angle in front of you, well, that’s harder. “It takes a lot of muscle to hold it up.”

The challenge with simply correcting your head position, says Studholm, is that if the other things that led to that aren’t fixed, then pretty soon you’ll be right back where you started.

There are other technique issues, too, that can contribute to upper back problems. We can hold our arms too high or too tight. Especially as we tire, our shoulders tend to rise and become tenser. Some of us swing our arms too much; some of us not enough. Studholm says, generally, he recommends an arm swing where your fist is next to your hip at one end of the swing, and your elbow at the other. Many of us cross our body with our arms, creating torque on the upper back.

Tracing the Origins of the Pain

Of course, diagnosing pain is never simple.

“Just because you have pain at X, Y, Z spot, doesn’t mean that’s the origin of your pain,” says Thomas Hyde, professor of sports medicine at University of Western States.

Hyde cites an example of a study where researchers looked at the fascia, connective tissue under the skin, in cadavers. When the fascia at the bottom of the spine was tugged on, it caused a counter-reaction felt in the opposite shoulder. If you’re feeling pain in your upper back when you run, it could actually be because of issues lower down the chain.

There’s also some research about the pain caused by peripherally sensitive nerves just under the skin, says Studholme. With repetitive motion, those nerves can get caught up in the tissue, which creates irritation. One of the things that makes those nerves so sensitive to irritation are changes in pH in that region. What one thing causes a change in pH? Lactic acid. Studholme says there’s some growing evidence that when local nerves are bathed in lactic acid, for example as you run longer or harder, that can make them more sensitive to irritation and ultimately cause pain. There are topical gels that can bring down the localized pH and taping methods that stop some of the nerves from getting stuck in the tissue. But then you’re still back to ground zero: fixing whatever caused the irritation in the first place.

How to Treat Back Pain

For Shatto, fixing that initial issue is challenging. Much of our slouching, and the accompanying stress on our upper backs and shoulders, is “a function of society.” Runners aren’t different from everyone else these days — meaning that we spend lots of time sitting in front of computers or bent over our phones. “You’re always hunched over something,” says Shatto. That adds stress to the vertebrae and ligaments in our neck, shoulders, and back. We can deal with it most of the time, but when we start running it becomes too much.

“Those muscles get tired,” says Shatto.

Shatto recommends to strengthen the lower and mid trapezius muscles, and the rhomboid muscles, along the spine at the base of the neck, like shoulder extensions and pull-downs, as well as Supermans on the floor. Studholme also recommends targeting the serratus anterior muscles, which run along the side of the ribs up and under the shoulder blades. The difficulty is to get those muscles engaged without over-using the upper trap muscles, which is where most of us are dominant.

It’s also important to get your body to do the opposite of hunching forward and to stretch out the neck and upper back muscles. It doesn’t take a lot of time, especially if you do these things preemptively, but don’t expect to live your whole life slouched over and get rid of that pain after one stretch.

“If you spend 8-10 hours each day in front of the computer and you think 30 seconds on a foam roller is somehow going to change that,” says Studholme, well, you’re in for a surprise.

The post Why Your Upper Back Hurts When Running appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

The first time I sprained my ankle, it was quickly followed by a stress fracture and weeks of hobbling around. And for months after my ankle injuries finally healed, while swearing that everything was better, it seemed like I could constantly feel new injuries coming on—weaknesses I was susceptible to because of that ankle.

It turns out I wasn’t imagining things.

Though many of us have been taught that you can shake off a twisted ankle, that’s not really true. Studies are now finding that the ankle is, quite literally, the foundation of an athlete. An injury to your ankle can have long-lasting consequences.

“What we’re realizing is it’s a much more serious injury,” says Mike Turner, an associate professor at University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Turner and his wife, Tricia Hubbard-Turner, have authored a number of recent studies on the long-lasting effects of ankle injuries.

“It’s not a one-off. There are significant consequences,” adds Tim McGuine, a senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. A study of college-age athletes who had suffered multiple ankle sprains in the past found that they were markedly less physically active than their peers, even taking fewer steps over the course over a day. It’s almost like their brains simply didn’t want to over-stress those historically hurt ankles.

The issue is two-fold. We’re only starting to understand the long-term consequences of these mobility-impacting injuries, says McGuine. Similar effects are being seen with recurring knee issues and their long-lasting impacts. The second problem is that the ankle is so fundamental to the entire body’s operation, especially in running. It’s weight-bearing, and the constant force on your ankle makes it hard for the joint to heal. That’s why Turner and his wife have made the ankle a focus of so much study. “She would say the ankle’s the most important joint in the body,” he admits.

According to Turner, even after ankle injuries start to heal, your brain begins to re-wire neurally and your body compensates in ways you may or may not realize. “You end up running differently, walking differently,” he explains. Video analysis has shown those changes can be fairly significant.

It doesn’t take a ton of research to realize an ankle injury can result in a whole new set of injuries. Researchers are finding that even these “small” injuries—ankle sprains, twists, fractures—can result in significant drops in a person’s quality of life even a year later, per all measures on standard surveys. People find that it’s slightly harder to walk up the stairs or do activities that require ankle mobility. Subconsciously, they even avoid things that might cause another twisted ankle.

That’s because a twisted ankle isn’t as small an injury as we may think.

When you badly roll your ankle or sprain it, you’re essentially tearing or stretching the ligaments, which causes scar tissue to form, says McGuine. Scar tissue, in turn, affects your mechanics and functionality. Different studies have found re-injury rates between 40 and 70 percent, and many people struggle with long-term ankle instability for months or even years.

But, says Turner, it’s not yet clear what makes someone more prone to long-term ankle instability or even to ankle sprains in the first place. The vast majority of sprains are caused by people rolling their ankles out—as opposed to in—and very few ankle injuries are actual bone fractures.

What is clear is what you can do about it once it happens. Let it heal, says Turner, as in, don’t try to shake it off or run through it. Go to a sports-focused physical therapist or doctor who can watch how your whole mechanical chain works and make recommendations, says McGuine.

There are also a number of exercises that have been shown to improve ankle strength and mobility. The problem, however, says McGuine, is that a lot of ankle rehabilitation exercises or strengthening exercises—such as calf raises or pulling a band in and out with your foot—tend to move in straight lines or just two to three planes of motion. “But ankle injuries don’t happen in a straight line,” he explains.

Instead, balancing exercises and exercises that work the muscles in the bottom of the foot are more effective. These can be fairly low-tech, McGuine says, such as balancing on one foot with your eyes closed. Then, progress to standing on an uneven surface—even something as simple as a pillow—because it forces your ankle and foot to compensate. Finally, you can try one-legged knee bends.

There’s also some evidence that bracing or getting your ankle taped by a trained professional can help stabilize it and prevent re-injury, says McGuine, but that doesn’t really address the fundamental underlying issues.

“If you don’t do your exercises for 5 to 10 minutes per day, then all the bracing in the world isn’t going to help,” says McGuine.

The post Why Ankle Injuries Can Have Long-Lasting Effects appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Sure, you run a lot. You probably think you’re pretty fit. But, then again, it’s likely you also know plenty of runners who couldn’t lift a dumbbell or survive a game of tennis if their life actually depended on it. Exactly how does running fitness translate to other sports? And, how does what we do in other sports translate back to running?

“Running, in a way, is a very specialized sport,” says Jeff Horowitz, a running coach and author of the book, . Running only moves in one direction. That doesn’t necessarily prepare you for other types of movement. What running does do is build your engine, “which is why you hear about professional athletes of all types having a base of running,” he said.

Horowitz saw that in action when he played some pick-up basketball with friends. He isn’t an amazing basketball player, but he has great endurance and could last longer than the other guys on the court. “I wasn’t great, but they were huffing and puffing,” he says.

A study done by Øyvind Stþren, from the Department of Sport and Outdoor Life Studies at Telemark University College in Norway, found that a cyclist improved his cycling performance in a time trial test, even when his cycling training was reduced and high-intensity running was substituted instead. This is, Stþren said, because running is one of the activities that most improves VO2 max. VO2 max, he said, is one of the main things that determines a person’s aerobic endurance and VO2 max is most affected by the heart’s stroke volume. So, improving your heart’s stroke volume can ultimately help improve your endurance.

“The activities that are best suited to improve stroke volume are those who put the most stress on cardiac output. These are activities that involves large muscle mass from several muscle groups, and activities performed in a vertical position,” StĂžren says. “So, swimming or rowing will not translate very well to running, because of position. Cycling will not translate as well to running as running translates to cycling—more muscle mass in running—and so on. Most runners could, after being used to the new techniques, perform well in cycling, triathlon, or cross-country skiing.”

That bodes well for fit runners hoping to take their fitness to other sports, but they shouldn’t get cocky. Runners also have a lot of weaknesses.

“If all you do is run, you leave these gaping holes in your fitness,” said Horowitz.

The typical runner has poor lateral strength and movement, weak hips and a weak upper body. Hamstrings often have to overcompensate for weak glute muscles. And, nearly all runners could work on their balance.

That means if you’re trying to figure out what other sports would translate well back to running, then you should focus either on sports that strengthen the muscles directly used in running, or on those that work the muscles that support running indirectly, Horowitz says.

Inline skating, Horowitz says, can help strengthen hip muscles in runners. Tennis can even be good in developing runners’ lateral movement and glutes. “Cycling is really good,” he says, because much of cycling is quad-focused while running mostly engages the backs of the legs. Cycling also tends to attract people for similar reasons: exploring the outdoors and hanging out with friends. Even things like rock climbing, kayaking, and rowing, Horowitz says, can be beneficial for running. Stþren recommends cross-country skiing.

Interestingly, studies have found that good swimming fitness doesn’t appear to translate to equally good running fitness. “Swimming doesn’t help much in running,” Horowitz says. The one thing swimming does have going for it is that the training tends to be pretty brutal. “Some athletes move from swimming to running and are used to training very hard in swimming, so the run training isn’t so demanding after all,” says famed coach Jack Daniels of .

Daniels also advocates simply being active, especially in younger athletes. “For youngsters, whatever sport is fun will benefit running,” he says—something that still holds true as we age.

“We’ve become too specific in our sports,” Horowitz says. If you think of your body as trying to solve the challenges you present it, then if you only present it with the same problem over and over (ie. running), it’ll get good at that, but not at much else, he explains. “Our body doesn’t know how to solve lots of problems.”

When a client comes to Horowitz and says that he or she wants to be a better runner, Horowitz usually tells them to focus on becoming a better overall athlete. If you “broaden the ways your body moves,” he believes, it will help your running.

StÞren agrees, advocating occasional strength training and other types of explosive exercises as a way to improve running economy. In a different study, StÞren and his associates found that running economy could be improved through maximal strength training. Their protocol involved four sets of four squats at maximum weight, three times per week. In addition to regular strength training, he also recommends jumping and plyometric exercises as a way to improve running economy.

“The best runners will be those who both have a high VO2 max and are able to be efficient regarding running economy,” Stþren says.

The post Does Running Fitness Translate to Other Sports? appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

All training affects your hormone, or endocrine, system.

It’s important, says Anthony Hackney, a professor of exercise physiology at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the co-author of Sports Endocrinology, to understand the balance of hormones. The key hormones for an athlete to know about are growth hormone (or human growth hormone, HGH), insulin and insulin-like growth factors, cortisol, and testosterone.

Growth hormone triggers the adaptive response in your muscles, says Tom Cotner, Ph.D., the running coach for Seattle-based Club Northwest. Growth hormone is an anabolic hormone that promotes growth. It targets the muscles and cells that are being stressed by exercise and makes them receptive to adaptation. The muscles actually adapt during recovery.

We naturally secrete growth hormone during the delta wave part of sleep, but as we get older we have less and less time in that deep sleep. During exercise, we also secrete growth hormones but in smaller quantities. It doesn’t kick in, either, until after about 10 minutes of exercise, Cotner says, and there are diminishing returns after 75 minutes.

Because growth hormone is secreted from the pituitary gland in response to energy expenditure it’s possible to “game the system,” Cotner says, by training more than once a day, doing more intense exercise, or taking an ice bath after exercise, which expends energy.

But, as the weeks of exercise accumulate, the amount of growth hormone secreted for anyone workout decreases and your body adapts. If you really wanted to “see the hormones go crazy,” Hackney says, you’d get the most response from being very out of shape and then starting to work out.

The most commonly overlooked hormones involved in exercise are the insulin-like growth factors and insulin. Insulin-like growth factors are stimulated by growth hormones and bind to cells to regulate cell growth and processes. Insulin oversees the cells’ uptake of glucose and storage of glycogen, necessary to ensure we have the right energy pathways available for our training.

In the regular course of things—if you’re eating well, sleeping, and exercising—these hormones work to self-regulate and maintain a balance.

“Some are going up, some are going down,” Hackney says.

We can throw that balance out of whack, though, from overtraining. “You can overload your endocrine system,” Cotner says.

Cortisol is released from the adrenal gland and is an anti-inflammatory and a catabolic hormone that breaks down cells. In an average person, cortisol breaks down about 1 percent of muscle proteins daily, which are then replaced as induced by growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor. With training, cortisol breaks down 3-5 percent of muscle proteins in the body every day, Cotner says. Too much training releases too much cortisol and essentially breaks down too many proteins.

Too much training can also decrease the levels of testosterone in the body. Testosterone, found in both men and women, increases muscle mass and decreases recovery time. But while intense workouts can increase testosterone levels, too much long, easy training can drive them down.

Overtraining is the most likely thing to throw off an athlete’s hormone balance, which leads to all the symptoms associated with over-training: sleeplessness, extreme muscle soreness, elevated resting heart rate, or overall fatigue. Generally, if you experience those symptoms, you should dial it back. But knowing exactly how much training is too much can be challenging.

“If I knew exactly how much was too much, I’d be a lot richer,” Hackney says.

Other things that can impact the hormone balance include life stress, which causes a release of cortisol, epinephrine and norephedrine. A lack of sleep can stall your secretion of growth hormone, as can alcohol, Cotner says. One beer, he says, can decrease the amount of growth hormone secreted by 25 percent. Age also decreases the amount of growth hormone and slows down the entire system. That’s why older athletes often experience the two-day lag effect of soreness from a workout—which can also happen to young female athletes, who have less growth hormone and testosterone.

Not eating enough calories, a particular problem for female athletes, can cause a disruption in the whole system. The right mix of protein (6 grams) to carbohydrates (30 grams) in the recovery window after a workout helps delay cortisol secretion and getting enough iron is essential to red blood cell production, regulated by naturally-occurring EPO. Any sickness or trauma will also force your body to prioritize hormone regulation to those things first.

Trying to bump up levels of some hormones is common in a variety of forms. People sleep in altitude tents to increase levels of EPO naturally by decreasing oxygen supply. Over-the-counter supplements promise to increase testosterone or HGH levels. But “a lot of those things don’t work,” Hackney says.

Even the things that do work in the short-term—resistance exercises have been shown to elevate short-term levels of growth hormone, testosterone and insulin-like growth factors—aren’t proven to make you faster in the long run, Hackney says.

Illegal doping agents definitely increase hormone levels and can sometimes increase performance, both Hackney and Cotner say. But, there are legal consequences, severe health consequences, and sometimes even death from messing with your hormone balance artificially. The complicated system is good at self-regulating and it’s hard to know what all the side effects of changing one thing will be.

The post The Role Of Hormones In Running appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Every October, as hopeful runners around New York hit their peak training for the New York City Marathon, Dr. Loren Fishman’s office becomes flooded with people complaining of sciatica.

“Sciatica” is commonly used to refer to pain along the sciatic nerve, which runs from the lower back through the buttocks and down the leg. But sciatica itself is just a symptom, says Fishman, with a number of possible causes.

For most people in the general population who complain of sciatica pain the issue tends to be a herniated or ruptured disc. While that can also be a problem for runners, it’s much more common for pain in the lower back, buttocks, and back of the legs in a runner to be a result of piriformis syndrome, says Fishman.

A study of over two million people complaining of sciatica found that there were “as many, if not more, with piriformis syndrome as with herniated discs,” says Fishman.

The piriformis muscle is a small muscle deep in your hip that runs from the back of the pelvis to the top of the femur. It helps with hip rotation and it typically runs over or above the sciatic nerve. (In some people the nerve actually runs directly through the piriformis muscle.) The sciatic nerve is a very large, thick nerve that comes out of a bundle of nerves in the lower back and goes all the way down the leg.  If the piriformis muscle becomes tightened or inflamed, it can catch or pinch the sciatic nerve—meaning your real problem is piriformis syndrome.

There are actually some very simple tests to find out if your pain is a result of piriformis syndrome or something else. Lay on your back and pull your knee toward your opposite shoulder. Hold it for about 30 seconds and if you have piriformis syndrome then you will likely experience tingling along the outside of your leg. Lying on your unaffected side and rotating the painful leg across your body with the knee bent or attempting to push your knees out against resistance while sitting, may both also cause pain if you have piriformis syndrome.

However, none of these self-diagnostic tests are conclusive. A simple test, invented by Fishman, uses EMG findings in similar poses to diagnose piriformis syndrome.

Once the problem is properly diagnosed, the treatment can be relatively straightforward.

But Dr. Steve Gangemi, known as “The Sock Doc,” says sciatica is actually “one of the most misdiagnosed” problems. The sciatic nerve does extend down the back of the leg, but it doesn’t have any sensory endings above the knee. “You can’t feel your sciatic nerve in your hamstring or butt,” Gangemi says. What people are actually feeling in their lower back or hamstrings is typically sclerotogenous referred pain.

For runners complaining of what Gangemi calls “sciatica-like pain,” i.e. pain in the lower back and back of the leg, he argues that it most commonly is an imbalance of the piriformis or glute max and medius muscles. That can cause inflammation, pain, or even pinching of that sciatic nerve.

Gangemi recommends that his patients with piriformis syndrome or glute imbalances use manual therapies to hit key trigger points in those muscles. Visiting a chiropractor or massage therapist can help with some of that bodywork, he says. Stretching, on the other hand, feels good, but it can actually continue the imbalance problem in the long run, according to Gangemi.

Sometimes people get better after just basic bodywork. Sometimes they have to pull back on running or figure out if they need to strengthen some muscles over others.

If you keep having pain, “then you’re not really addressing the problem,” says Gangemi. That problem may really be poor running mechanics, improper footwear, or overuse.

Over the years, Fishman says, he’s seen probably 17,000 people who thought they had piriformis syndrome. About half of them really did. For that half, he recommends a protocol that he developed over 35 years and that he believes cures about 80 percent of the sufferers.

It starts with a small injection of steroids and lidocain in the lower muscle to decrease the pain and bring down inflammation. Over a number of sessions, the injured then get treatment that includes ultrasound and manual release from a therapist, who presses horizontally on the muscle and then down.

“The therapist gets arthritis and the patient gets better,” says Fishman.

After the pain is gone and the runners are better, Fishman prescribes them a course of yoga exercises, including the twisted triangle, seated twist, and twisted half moon.

What about the other half of people who think they have piriformis syndrome but don’t? Or those who simply complain of sciatica? For them, the pain can be a result of any number of things: from arthritis to a pulled hamstring to spinal stenosis. That’s why sciatica continues to send hundreds of runners running to the doctor’s office.

The post How To Treat And Beat Sciatica appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.