Playing any sport comes with a risk of injury. The type of injury, however, can differ depending upon the sport. In track and field, you don’t really have to worry about acute injuries – like ACL tears – that are more common in high-collision sports like football and hockey. What you do have to watch out for are overuse injuries.
“Overuse injuries are probably the most common type of injury I’ve seen in runners,” says Jeffrey Bord, an athletic trainer at the Henry Ford Center for Athletic Medicine. “There’s a study that says each leg carries four times your body weight while running. It’s essentially a single-leg sport because you’re alternating between each leg as fast as you can. It puts a lot of stress on your joints, muscles and tendons.”
Here, Bord shares three specific overuse injuries to be aware of, how to treat them – and how you can help prevent them in the first place.
3 Common Overuse Injuries In Runners
1. Patellar tendonitis
Also known as “jumper’s knee,” patellar tendonitis occurs from putting uneven stress on your knee, causing inflammation and pain.
“Many runners are quad dominant – meaning the muscles in the front of your thighs are working a lot harder than your hamstrings or glutes,” Bord says. “This means your knees are taking more of a beating while running.”
Treatment and prevention: Treating patellar tendonitis is about calming down the inflammation. Bord recommends going to a specialist for manual therapy (think: cupping and massage) to help increase blood flow. This will reduce inflammation and loosen any tightness around the knee. Ice and over-the-counter anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen can help, too.
In the long-term, getting stronger can help prevent patellar tendonitis. “A lot of runners want to exclusively run,” Bord says. “They don’t do as much weightlifting, but I think that’s the solution to so many of the overuse injuries you see with runners.”
Bord recommends strengthening your glutes, hamstrings and lower back, which will take some of the pressure off your knees. For example, try exercises like glute bridges, split squats, clamshells, Romanian deadlifts, fire hydrants or single-leg squats.
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2. Shin splints
Most runners have likely dealt with shin splits (otherwise known as medial tibial stress syndrome). Shin splints occur when too much stress is put on your shins, causing inflammation and pain usually on the inner portion of the shin.
“When you’re overloading and starting to run more miles, your calves are working harder, your feet are taking more of a pounding and so your shins will start to get tight and inflamed,” Bord says.
In some cases, shin splints can progress to stress reactions, or tiny cracks in the shin bone. In worst-case scenarios, stress reactions can turn into stress fractures. This is more likely to occur when they go ignored for too long.
“Your shin bones are always trying to remodel themselves and get stronger from the forces put upon them with running,” Bord says. “If you add too much additional force, you can get interruptions in remodeling, which is what causes these small cracks.”
Treatment and prevention: Sometimes, treating shin splints can be as easy as getting a different pair of running shoes. “While you should strengthen your hips and calf muscles to take the stress off your lower legs, wearing the right shoe is also important,” Bord says. “The shoe that’s best for you depends upon factors like your arch and how long you’ve been running. Beginners often prefer more cushion.”
He recommends going to any running shoe store to get fitted, or talking with a physical therapist or athletic trainer to get recommendations.
It’s also a good idea to give your shins a few weeks to heal by switching to lower-impact exercises. “You can either bike, use the elliptical, or run on an anti-gravity treadmill that allows you to run at 70% of your body weight,” Bord says. “These activities put a lot less stress on your lower legs while allowing you to keep up with cardio. Then you can ease your way back into running.”
3. Hip impingement
Hip impingement occurs when your hip bone and socket rub together, causing pain, tightness and a pinching feeling – usually at the front of your hip.
“When you’re upping your intensity and milage, your low back and hip flexors (the muscles located at the front of your hip) get overworked,” Bord says. “It puts a lot of stress on your hips. Hip impingement can become chronic for people, where they’ll run a mile and then their hip will feel really tight and painful.”
Treatment and prevention: Runners sometimes have a stronger, more dominant leg and it causes their non-dominant hip to get tight. (This is especially common in those who have played other sports like soccer or basketball.) Treating hip impingement is about strength training to ensure your legs have equal strength.
Try single-leg exercises like split squats – and adding in more reps on your weaker leg – along with banded stretches like PNF stretching, which involves activating your muscles with a band.
At the end of the day, don’t let potential injury dissuade you from running – it has so many physical and mental health benefits. It’s just important to ensure your body is strong.
“Strength training is really important,” Bord says. “The stronger you are, the better you’re going to feel and the more durability you’re going to have as you amp up your training.”
Reviewed by Jeffrey Bord, MS, AT, ATC, CSCS, an athletic trainer at the Henry Ford Center for Athletic Medicine.
