Why Can't I Kick These Injuries?

Sometimes, injuries come from places that you might not suspect. There are a few different things I’ll share with you here that I’ve seen over many years with athletes and injuries.

One of the most common places I’ll see an athlete get injured or struggle with chronic injury is when they’re in a habit of stopping and starting the training all the time. It’s a normal reaction to want to stop when you get a little bit of a tightness or niggle. However, it’s important to determine if the tightness and niggle is actual pain. When athletes get in a routine of one week on/one week off, three days on/two weeks off...all different kinds of patterns of inconsistency, they are often still fit enough to go just fast enough to hurt themselves. But their inconsistency is taking away the durability for them to be able to handle the speed that they might be trying to go, even if they think it is very easy, especially if you're an older athlete. The older we get, the more important it is that we stay consistent. Even just 15 minutes a day can make a huge difference in injury prevention. This is especially important with running. Inconsistency and patterns of stopping and starting training are probably the number one thing I see with athletes and injury. 

The next thing is typically changes of equipment. Because our sport is so repetitive, you can run into trouble if there is a sudden change in equipment For example, if your seat height on your bike drops without you knowing it. Or you change from a time trial bike to a road bike. Or you buy a different pair of shoes that has a different heel drop. These little things can suddenly cause injury. Maybe not so much if you were a younger athlete, but the older we get, the more important this is to avoid injury. Crank length on bikes is a big one that I often see overlooked and causes hip, achilles, or even hamstring injuries. 

Another thing I will touch on is athletes who increase training load or intensity far outside of what they’ve been doing randomly. We’ve seen a fair bit of this through the pandemic because people are adding adventures and challenges that perhaps they might not do in a regular season. With swimming and biking, you can do this with a little bit more freedom. But with running, it should absolutely be a dealbreaker because that is where risk is the highest. 

The last point you should take a look at if you’ve been struggling with chronic niggles is how much sitting you do for extended periods of time, and this includes travel. I often see injuries pop up from athletes not due to their training, but because of what they’re doing outside their training, and sitting at a desk or in a car for long periods of time and then jumping into hard training without loosening up is a really common way to see injuries pop up. So if you’re chronically having niggles pop up here and there, ask yourself if any of these sound familiar. 

These habits and patterns are some of the most common reasons I see athletes struggling chronically with injuries. Of course there are many other factors that come into play, but these are just a few I wanted to share with you if this is something you’ve been struggling with and haven’t thought to take a look at. Hope this helps stay healthy. Keep training and love what you do