Running injuries – understand their cause and start from the brain
Surely you have ever dealt with the question of why someone constantly struggles with various pains and injuries, and someone runs all his life and does not know what pain is? If you belong to the second group, I warmly congratulate you. But there are most of those who, sooner or later, to a greater or lesser extent, encounter certain difficulties that will temporarily or forever knock them out of their favorite sport. Why does this happen? Running is the most natural movement!
It doesn’t matter so much what we do, what physical activity or what profession, but rather how we do it. And this is decided by the settings of our central computer, that is, the settings of movement programs in the brain. Unfortunately, we are rarely aware of the quality of this setting, because we perceive it as natural, it is automatic for us and therefore correct. That something is wrong, we realize usually after the first or repeated injuries.
Our computer often works, to put it mildly, not quite ideally, at least when it comes to motion programs. These errors in their settings manifest themselves quite similarly. It always creates a similar muscle imbalance in our body. There are several reasons for this. One of them that we are all burdened with is evolution. We have not yet fully adapted to walking on two legs, so the muscles used by other four-legged mammals tend to gain the upper hand even in our country, while the muscles specific to the human race tend to fall out of function. Often this happens at the very beginning of our lives. In the first weeks and months after birth, certain muscles should be involved in movement and give the basis for a good straightening of the spine and position in the joints.However, this often does not happen in full quality. So the basic building blocks of our motor skills are shaky.
If we have worked our way through early childhood unscathed, other obstacles await us. On the one hand, it is a restriction of our movement by compulsory school attendance, i.e. a certain physical poverty. We are also shaped by the physical activities and sports we perform. That is, a one-sided or too large load. Furthermore, we are very significantly shaped by injuries. The consequences of a broken leg or a dislocated knee can manifest themselves after twenty years by repeated injuries of this limb, for example, during running. Finally, we must not forget the factor that is perhaps the most significant, namely how well we can perceive our body, so well we can handle it.
How to get to chronic problems
Someone does not have any difficulties, because he had a good development in the first year of life, does not have a very devastating job, has moved adequately all his life and has a good body image. If such a person has an accident, he quickly gets out of it and is soon back in shape.On the contrary, there is a person who did not have an ideal development (we are not aware of it, but there are a lot of us), the movement load, if it is, is rather one-sided, add to this a sedentary lifestyle or, on the contrary, a physically very demanding job, some injury, the effects of evolution and chronic problems are in the world.
Better sooner than later
Muscle imbalance means that some muscles therefore tend to weaken and work less, opposite muscles, or parts of them, work too much, are in increased tension and are themselves a source of pain. It manifests itself in the runner, for example, pain in the calf, hamstrings or pain in the muscles along the spine. They can also hurt their tendons, behind which the muscles chronically pull. Runners then develop, for example, Achilles tendon pain, ITBS or pain in the sciatic hump.Another source of pain can be overloaded parts of the articular surfaces, since such a muscle imbalance leads to the deflection of the articular surfaces into a non-ideal position. Classically, the knees or hips in the groin hurt. These functional disorders later lead to structural disorders that can no longer be eliminated. We call all of these injuries overload injuries. These pains must be taken as a signal and dealt with in time before the actual damage occurs.
If we want to solve the cause of the problem, it is necessary to work not only with muscles and joints, but with the nervous system, especially with the brain. We need to change the work of the brain as a governing body so that it works in our favor. This requires some effort, but in the long run it is clearly and quite logically very advantageous. You teach the brain to work with the body in a better way, and this function becomes automatic. Therefore, you are not destined for lifelong compensatory exercise.
We are preparing this series for you in cooperation with Sport.cz.
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