Old You: Trains until the pain stops you
New You: Targets muscle weakness so you can keep on running
The old adage ‘no pain, no gain’ is exactly that; outdated. Admittedly when you work hard and test your body’s limits you’ll feel uncomfortable; hillwork, speed sessions and tempo runs are all prime examples. But there is a big difference between short-term effort and longer-lasting pain.
“With any niggle or twinge that lasts more than two days, get professional advice as soon as you can. The quicker you get on top of any pain, the quicker you’ll get fixed and back to running,” explains Ralph Hydes. Discover more about when to run through pain and when to listen to your body’s SOS signals.
For most runners there’s nothing worse than sitting on the sidelines, but fortunately many problems can be prevented by targeting specific muscle weaknesses. We’ve put together the key exercises to tackle the seven most common body breakdowns and five injury-beating stretches to keep you on your feet.
You can also follow our popular bikram yoga blog to improve your core strength, posture and running efficiency. Katherine took up yoga in the 1960s and credits it as part of the reason she has now been running for 52 years. “People thought I was a nut case but it paid off – we now know that core strength is essential for long hard running training,” she says.
Picture credit: Mike Harrington/ Getty Images
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