Want to run faster, longer and without pain? Here’s what you need to know!

Does anyone else feel like running has made a widespread return in the last 18 months? We do!

As gyms and community sport experienced closures due to covid-19, a lot of us have taken up running to maintain our health and fitness regime or to take on a new challenge.

As restrictions have eased in most states, for some of us running might’ve taken the back seat as gyms and sport have returned.

But for those who have fallen in love with running and want to run faster, longer and most importantly pain-free – we can help you get there!

We recommend booking in for a free initial assessment with one of our physiotherapists at Back In Motion, who will be able to provide you with a running assessment to help you improve your performance and also help you manage any existing injuries.

During a running assessment, our physiotherapists will analyse your running technique, any biomechanical issues and even explore a run program to help reduce the risk of injury.

Running injuries often occur from overloading structures either from: individual factors, external factors or changes in exercise schedules.

• Individual factors include things like poor biomechanics (defined below), a lack of strength, running technique and psychological factors.
• External factors include running surfaces, terrain and shoes.
• Changes in exercise schedules are often due to increasing your training load too quickly without the appropriate training (e.g. Going from a daily 1km run to a daily 10km run without the appropriate training OR changing from running every 2 days to running every day without rest)

Biomechanics can be described as the science behind “how the body moves” and we consider the force exerted on the body during that movement.

Poor running biomechanics places unnecessary excess force on structures of the body with the potential to cause trauma/injury, as well as creating inefficiencies which can slow you down or may make running harder than it needs to be!

This may be experienced as stiffness in joints, tightness in muscles, achy or sudden pain.

A correct progressive running programme with assistive exercises will help get your body prepared for your event, and help you to avoid these overload injuries.

Here at Back In Motion, we can help you to work toward your goals, and build you a progressive programme to help you run faster, longer and pain free.

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This article was contributed by Zoe Rippon, Physiotherapist from Back In Motion, Melbourne on Collins. Zoe has a keen interest in running and enjoys helping clients get the best out of their training.