FEATURE is true in every sport – if your demand outweighs your capacity – you will get injured at some point. The tricky part is determining how much you should increase your training – per run, per week, per month – with-out exceeding the tissue’s capacity. There are many theories (e.g., 10 per cent per week) but everyone is different in terms of their physiology and genet-ics – some could increase more than 10 per cent and have no problems, some may increase less than 10 per cent and have several injuries. A runner needs to listen, feel, hear and see what their body is telling them and adjust their training accordingly. Be your own experiment. Once an injury gets to the point where the runner seeks treatment, it has usually been building for a considerable period of time. As sport chiropractors, we hear, “My (injured area) starts to hurt about 30 minutes into my run. My pain is so bad, I now have to stop running when the pain starts.” In general, the first goal with the runner is to reduce the demand. We don’t recommend that patients stop running completely but they have to cut back so that there is no pain during the run and no pain the next day. If they were getting pain at 30 minutes, we suggest they try 15 or 20 minutes to start. We can also reduce the demand by changing the running sur-face (asphalt versus trails), running route (always running on the same side of the road/sidewalk versus alternating sides) and running conditions (limit hills, no icy conditions), and by trying pool running. Once we have established a new baseline for pain-free running, then the second goal is to increase their capacity. Treatment, although based on the diag-nosis, is designed to increase the capac-ity of the tissue to withstand the de-mand. This, combined with the aforementioned new training program, will increase the tissue’s tolerance. There are other ways to increase the tissue’s capacity, including improving nutrition, decreasing stress, getting better sleep/ rest and cross training. The concept of demand and capacity also can be applied to hydration during training. The body has a clear demand when it comes to hydration – a demand www.canadianchiropractor.ca Photo: Dreamstime INJURY PREVENTION returning to full training F by brAd muir And ScOtt hOwitt What every sport chiropractor would like their injury-prone runners to know bone) has exceeded that tissue’s ca-pacity to adapt to the training. A five-kilometre (5K) runner would never train for a marathon by one day deciding to run 42K and trying to main-tain that level. They know they would get hurt. Every runner knows that one has to build up to the goal to let the tissues, along with the heart and lungs, adapt to the new training schedule. This or every overuse injury, the formula that caused the injury is fairly standard. The runner did not rest enough between sessions to allow the tissue to heal itself and let the benefit of the training effects on the body to kick in. In essence, the demand the runner has put on the tissue (muscle, tendon, dr. brAd muir is an associate professor at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College. He has lectured across Canada on running, hockey and functional testing as well as vibration therapy. You can contact him at [email protected]. dr. ScOtt hOwitt is also an associate professor at CMCC and a sessional lecturer for the University of Guelph. You can contact him at [email protected] or [email protected]. 34 Canadian Chiropractor October 2013 hydraTioN
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