Running is a dangerous sport. As a sports performance specialist and personal trainer in Singapore I see lots of runners with injuries that I want to help them with. These injuries are not like those in rugby due to a tackle, they are more overuse and long term injuries that happen over time.
As a Singapore personal trainer, I get many requests from clients to help them prepare for and improve their performance in long distance sports like marathons and triathlons which are gaining popularity both in Singapore and around the world.
There is huge participation in marathons and road races. Running and marathons are simple, do not cost much and can be done almost anywhere by just about anybody. It is this mass participation without sufficient preparation that has me, as a personal trainer and sports performance coach worried!
However they do have their dangers. They can be tough on the joints especially if you are untrained or overweight. These are tough for your lower back to handle, and excessive training distances are bad for your hormones, fat loss, and stress levels. The result is runners who are injured, have lost muscle mass, have reduced immune system function, and have actually decreased in health because of the marathon or triathlon training.
Here are 3 mistakes marathoners and long distance runners make when planning and organizing their training,.
1. The first and biggest mistake is not performing enough strength training. Doing a good strength training program under a good personal trainer or sport performance expert will help your run better, more efficiently, faster and with lower chance of injury. You need to get stronger in your glutes, back, and hamstrings to help your performance, posture and resistance to injury.
2. Not correcting functional problems or past injuries. Long distance athletes have a tendency to keep on training even when they have pain. Long distance atheltes have a tendency to "push" through an injury rather than fix the problem causing it. They put on guards and wraps of all kinds but these do not correct fundamental problems. Worse still injuries cause compensation in other parts of the body. This causes other areas in the body to become over used and then these suffer injury as well. See a good physical therapist, personal trainer or performance coach who knows how to diagnose and fix movement problems.
3. One other mistake that marathon and triathlon atheltes is insufficient care given to nutrition. The problem here is that many people use running to "burn off" calories. Unfortunately these calories often come from less than ideal sources like unhealthy fats and overly refined foods. In general I find long distance athletes do not take as much care of their nutrition as power sport athletes like weight lifters or track and field throwers. So take care of your nutrition and watch your progress go up.
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