OVERUSE INJURY PREVENTION
Recently I have had several of the athletes I coach plus many others I have conversations with throughout my travels tell me how their training and or racing has been effected by overuse injury, cramping (muscle spasm) and the biggest one constant soreness. Just like a lot of people don’t realise how good they would feel, how much more energy they would have and how productive they could be if they addressed the issue of a crappy diet, a lot of triathletes don’t realise they are not meant to feel debilitated with soreness during ‘heavy’ training. In the most part this is caused by poor recovery, an essential component of any good training plan. This soreness will inevitably lead to overuse injury, impact training consistency and eventually reduce the enjoyment of training. So I am putting together my thoughts on recovery / overuse injury to hopefully assist you and persuade you to make recovery and session preparation a priority.
“Overuse injury is caused by repeated use, stress and trauma to soft tissues of the body (muscles, tendons, bones and joints) without proper time for healing.” (http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/glossary/g/chronic_def.htm)
From my long term experience, observation and learning from numerous sources in the sport of triathlon this is caused by inadequate recovery, poor program planning, muscle imbalance or repeated use of a muscle or tendon in a position it was not designed to be used. I will address these issues individually and hopefully provide you with practical solutions to do all you can to prevent having your goals being squashed by annoying niggles which turn into big issues.
RECOVERY
Recovery is overlooked by most athletes and many coaches as an integral part of your overall training plan. Too often we fall into the trap of squeezing as much volume and unstructured intensity into the limited time available in belief that more (distance, time) is better. This is at the expense of warming up properly, preparing the body to train properly, spending time maintaining stressed muscle tissue post session, eating an adequate recovery meal within 30min of every session and getting enough sleep.
What you can do.
- Warm Up I have recently (18mnths ago) begun using my Trigger Point tools as preparation for every session, it takes about 10min and it’s amazing how much better I feel. My coach Kristian from Trispecific http://www.trispecific.com/ put me onto this gear.The reason I feel better is because my tissue is placed back into ‘balance’ (Length / Tension relationship restored and elasticity is restored). http://www.tptherapy.com/unlock-your-body-awareness.php This allows me to move freely by reducing stress on myofascial tissue (Muscles and Tendons) and assists muscular tissue to contract with more force. When you wake up the in morning you have spent the night sleeping (8 hrs) in often awkward positions, shortening muscles and placing them out of ‘balance’. In order allow your body it’s correct range of motion you have to put everything back into ‘balance’ for want of a better word to minimise undue stress on compensating muscles (Restoring tissue back to its correct Length / Tension relationship). The same issue occurs after a long drive, sitting at a desk etc etc. So overtime continually training on ‘imbalanced’ muscles you are going to stress them to the point of breakdown (Inflammation, Tendonitis and Bursitis). You may say this first point isn’t recovery but you are essentially recovering your body from the stress’ you place it under carrying out all of life’s tasks pre training and assisting your body’s recovery for the proceeding session by not placing it under undue stress during the current session. (This = better / faster recovery)
- Preparing the body to train properly means mentally switching on. Switch hats from that business meeting you just finished and concentrate on doing every stroke, revolution, stride as effectively as possible. ‘Get in the zone’ a wandering mind can lead to poor technique, laziness and therefore injury. Again doing what you can to speed up and maximise recovery before and during a session puts you ahead of the eight ball to begin with.
- Fuel your session correctly. Long sessions over 90min, don’t need to fuel before, Start fueling by dripping in the calories over the session starting from 20min in as you would in a race. Learn more about what and how much here http://www.hammernutrition.com.au/info-centre/caloric-intake-proper-amounts-during-endurance-exercise/. Shorter session’s, less than 90min (a lot less for less fitter athletes and those that don’t fuel properly post session) don’t need fuelling during but you can have a carb rich snack just before training. After ALL training you MUST have a post session snack within 30min including good carbs and protein. Here’s why http://www.hammernutrition.com.au/info-centre/recover-well-reap-rewards/ (DON’T READ ANY FURTHER UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THE LINK) this is when the real carb loading is done, not the race sabotaging gorging of as many carbs as possible too many endurance athletes do race week. But I digress. On top of this a body that is just struggling to maintain homeostasis cannot put any emphasis on recovering from the trauma of training if it barely has enough fuel to keep the body doing whatever it is you are asking it do after your session! Nutritious, whole foods rich in Carbs and Protein along with plenty of vegetables!
- Make it a priority to roll every night! Spending 20min loosening up a stiff and tired body post session will restore the length / tension relationship stopping the damage done by sleeping, working or whatever it is your doing post session with stressed ‘imbalanced’ muscles. I can’t urge you enough to spend some time checking out this gear and why it’s a vital piece of recovery equipment for athletes. I highly recommend you make this a priority on your purchase list if you want to avoid overuse injury http://www.tptherapy.com.au/. Then once you have it, learn how to use it properly and USE IT!!
- Get 8hrs sleep every night. Your body needs its rest to recover from the rigours of life and training. If you are not getting 8hrs your body will continually struggle to fully recover from your workouts and residual fatigue will build over time. Also get as much sleep before midnight as possible!
- Check out this article by Matt Dixon
Program Planning
The old adage “Failing to plan is planning to fail” rings very true in this case. Not only will fail mean potentially not reaching your goals and/or potential (another topic all together) it will be a sure path to injury. Without a plan you can’t measure fatigue, you will be unaware of the many of the signs and symptoms that become obvious when following a well structured, balanced and repetitious program.
I speak to so many people who seem to believe success of a training program is based on a set numbers of kilometres swam, biked and ran or total hours trained. No regard is given to what intensity that training was completed at, individual life circumstances, repetition, specificity or overload. Now these are simple training principles and how they are applied differs greatly from one coach to the next. I won’t delve too far into my philosophies on this as it is another topic all together. But if you are to be successful you must understand how these principles work and how they can be best applied to your life circumstances, abilities, and the way your body responds to stimulus. Or at least chose a coach who understands this. Check out this article on how outside stress can impact your training http://www.scienceofrunning.com/2012/11/the-stress-of-life-how-stress-can.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+stevemagness+(Science+of+Running)&utm_content=Google+Reader&m=1
Repeated use of a Muscle or Tendon in a position it is not designed to be used.
There are several causes of this starting from training on ‘imbalanced’ muscles as I discussed earlier, poor posture and poor core strength causing undue stress on compensating muscles. But the two biggies that you can do something about immediately is make sure you are running in the correct shoes for your foot and your bike has been fitted correctly.
Shoes – I recommend that if you have suffered from any type of running injury that you see a qualified sports podiatrist who has an expertise in running / endurance sports. Ensuring you have the correct footwear for your foot is vital.
Bike – When people ask me about bike selection, the single most important consideration I make is that it fits you properly. The most aerodynamic, ceramic bearinged, tricked up piece of machinery will be useless to you unless it fits you. If you are uncomfortable you won’t be able to generate your maximum power potential, you will encourage injury, you won’t enjoy riding and you won’t be able to maintain the most aerodynamic position possible for you. I highly recommend you budget the $$$ to get a professional BG fit into any bike purchase.
BG Fits - http://www.specialized.com/au/en-au/hub/bgfit I believe are the best bike fit system around at the moment. My wife Tarryn recently came back to training and racing after giving birth to our second child. She was suffering bad back pain when in the time trial position. It was evident that her body had significantly changed since riding her bike pre baby number 2. After she spent the three hours to have a professional BG fit done by Sean from http://www.peak.bikehub.com.au/Home/BikeFittingBGFit.aspx the pain instantly stopped and her power numbers began to increase. This is a complete fit system, which is completely individualised and works. Check it out.
IN CONCLUSION
After reading this you will be gathering a picture that incorporating recovery into your program has nothing to do with lying on the couch all afternoon in between training sessions. In reality to make the above practical suggestions a reality you have to plan well (have all nutrition pre-prepared otherwise you will be caught out eating crap or nothing), stay motivated to complete what can be quite monotonous (rolling on TP gear can be a chore after a while but the benefits are certainly worth the effort), invest a few dollars in recovery equipment, bike and quality food and see the value in how incorporating a recovery approach to your training. Developing these habits will increase your enjoyment and success in the sport of Triathlon.
Want to learn more about recovery, injury prevention and all things Triathlon check out this new resource from Trispecific. http://trispecificu.com/
