Tips On How To Prevent And Treat Common Running Injuries

While there is the potential for running injuries (just as there is in any sport), the benefits far outweigh the possible risk of injury.

Here are some minor common injuries that all runners go through at one time or another:

• Foot blisters There are specialized socks to help prevent blisters. If you do get one lance it with a sterile needle and then put Superglue or Krazy glue on it.
• Chafing, caused by repetitive rubbing of one piece of skin against another, or against an article of clothing. One common location for chafe to occur is the runner's upper thighs. The skin feels coarse and develops a rash-like look. It can be prevented by either rubbing deodorant or special anti-chafing creams (sold in sticks that look like deodorant) to the area of the skin that rubs together. Chafe is also likely to occur on the nipple. A common solution is to affix a piece of medical tape over each nipple before running.

If you do get injured while running stop immediately. Sometimes you think it will go away if you continue, or there's only 1 mile to the end so you push on. Don't, it may get worse and your recovery time will be longer.

Use the RICE method of recovery as soon as possible to help the recovery process:

• Rest
• Ice
• Compression
• Elevation

To help prevent injury change terrain occasionally – such as trail, beach, or grass running. This is more unstable ground and allows the legs to strengthen different muscles.

Another injury prevention method common in the running community is stretching. Get into good stretching routine for before and after the race, this will go a long way to preventing injuries.

Have you considered yoga, no It's not only for old grannies. Many professional athletes use yoga to keep them flexible and injury free. Check out this video on yoga for runners.

Running in the correct shoes and making sure that the shoe fits properly will also help to prevent running injuries.

Your best defense against injury is to listen to your body. If you are training and little aches and pains start, take a rest.Injuries mean recovery time, the longer you take to recover the harder it will be to get back to where you were.

Rather train consistently at a easy to moderate pace than hard once or twice a week.

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