Most importantly, we must know, understand and observe constantly our body. It sends signals all the time. Every single second. If we don't know anatomy, physiology, biomechanics on at least a basic level, we cannot react. Knowing how, what, when to do, how to research properly is key.
The type of injury matters a lot. You cannot do mobility, activation, stretching or percussion massage on a broken bone to heal it. Of course. This is why you must be sensible about what is happening.
If you had a reoccuring or chronic injury, the answer is not in the treatment, but the correction of the cause. I have a knee issue now. Of course we talk about it with other runners. They ask me how to do it, how do I repair it that fast, how do I get out of this painful experience.
I cannot answer them without engaging in an hour long conversation. Because the answer is not simple. Also I cannot send them away, as as a coach is kind of my work to educate. Some listen, some just keep the ears open, but don't understand. So first of all, understand that I work on my whole body daily and has been like that for 25 years now. I had like 2 knee issues in the last 25 years. Those issues never came from the knee. So don't ask me how to heal your knee problem just because I have also a knee issue. You can have a knee that is flaring up each month each year, or even just each two years. You can have a knee issue, flaring up only on the concrete or track. You can have a knee issue, that is flaring up only after a competition. However, if it flares up, it means that it has constantly probably low level inflammation or during that action or period, you are stressing it too much. Knowing that it should not be stressed at all ! There can be also flare ups coming from bad nutritional habits and bad training decisions, despite good biomechanics and posture.
It is true both ways. You cannot exercise yourself out from a bad diet, and you cannot correct bad training habits with good nutrition.
What I know from my body, that I do my daily mobility and flexibility routines. I do pilates and yoga weekly. I do daily strength and conditioning and besides that household chores, like chopping wood, lifting concrete blocks, drilling, disking, punching, hammering, climbing on the roof and trees, bending, crawling and so. I also focus on technique, practice technique, do balance training and feet activation. I even do special hands and wrist exercises for proper arm carry. If I had an injury it came from something unknown. Like a bad combination of barefoot hiking, sprint drills and high volume kettlebell swings. High step up workout, a long run the previous day and chopping wood hard, without warming after beeing seated for 7hours front of the PC. I mean it is never unknown, but it can be sort of mysterious. I am a strong guy, who is working hard, often from 5am to 8pm. Starting out with water, cofee and writing, then workout, then prepare my tasks for work and work a little, then go to work, midday I run, work, then also I either run or chop some wood, work on the electricity or other renovation projects, I cook, stretch down, play dominos with the family, sweep the house and wipe the floor, than go to bad. I lift often heavy, carry, swing, think. Because of these constant activities, I often feel very much invincible. I always focus and always keep an eye on posture, nose breathing, chain of muscle contractions, posture and so. Except, that I am not invincible. There are activities, actually tons of type of movements, that I am not accustomed to. At all. I am a week little girl in those.
We went for a small family hike with my daughter. I put on a backpack, like 7kg max. Clothes and 3L of water, food. I used the shoe for the hike, that I often wear all day long. Xero Scrambler. Quiet protective, but zero drop. Around 1cm thick, michelin outsole. After that 6km hike, I was smoked. All my body. The little 8kg pack and the walk. Knowing that I am doing 3 to 5 hour long runs and train around 13 to 15hours weekly. Or when we were doing the drills all the time, we did a little workout running up and down in a tunnel, doing vo2max training. The combination of rest and speed specificity, made my body react with aches and pain. Good pain that time. Like deep muscle fatigue. Good !
My approach is simple. Don't change anything, but do more of it. Work all joints, in all dimensions and after warmed up do it under pressure. I always, always and always find the spot, where I am tender, where I am more limited than usual. I foam roll for feedback. 20min on the roller and I know what to work on. Easy. I can correct a knee or hip issue, that in 3 days I am back in high intensity situation. I stay smart, and won't do a back to back to back race specific long run. But I can already do 10 x 20 sec uphill. And like yesterday, I also added in 5 x 15sec technical downhill. Stimulate that knee. Work around the pain. Speed up for more and deeper contractions, but shorten the reps. Make the recovery longer. Do mobility and activation between reps.
You can actually do a 2hour 4km running specific workout that has more impact on your running economy and speed, that a 30km speed run.
This is my approach, it works and it is efficacious.
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