Two ways you should know to avoid running injuries.

If you want to get faster, you need to increase the external training load gradually.

However, the more you increase the external training load, the more risks you have getting injured basically.

So, if you want to run faster, you need to avoid injury, in other words, you need to strengthen your body to stay injury free.

And more importantly, if you cannot stay injury free, you cannot enjoy running. Does that make sense?

So, in this blog post, I will teach you two ways to avoid running injury.

Why running injuries occur?

First of all, why running injuries occur?

Some people say, it is because of bad posture or a bad running style. It could be a reason.

However, it’s not the biggest reason. You can ignore these things unless you have extremely bad posture and/or a running style.

The biggest reason why you get injured is because your training load is too high for your body. That’s it.

But it doesn’t mean, one training program can cause a running injury for everyone.

For example, if you do what I’m doing now, you would get injured 99% if you haven’t trained over 150km consistently in the last 10 years and are able to run a full marathon under 2:20.

Also, if I did what I’m doing now when I was 15 years old, I’m 100% sure 15 years old me got injured within one month.

What is the difference?

The difference is recovery ability and resistance ability of my body.

Our body is catabolizing and synthesizing at the same time. And training is catabolizing our body, exactly speaking, the molecules in our bodies (or more simply cells in our bodies).

And recovery is synthesizing the molecules in our bodies (or more simply regenerating new cells in our bodies).

If materials in our bodies are more synthesizing than catabolizing, there is no problem at all. We would not get injured. While materials in our bodies are more catabolizing than synthesizing, we would get injured sooner or later.

One hard workout is no problem at all. It’s very normal to take a few days to fully recover from a hard workout. Meaning, catabolizing beats synthesizing in a few days. It’s no problem at all.

However, when you consider things in several weeks, always synthesizing should beat catabolizing.

And, believe or not, you can increase synthesizing abilities, in other words, recovery abilities by running more and doing more moderate runs and increasing the pace of moderate runs gradually.

Also, to avoid injuries, increasing resistance of your body is very important. What do I mean by that?

Running is one of the most dangerous sports because of the impact of your feet hitting the ground.

Road bike and swimming are also endurance sports. But road bikers and swimmers get much less injuries because there is no impact of your feet hitting the ground.

So, to avoid injury, you need to increase the resistance ability to your feet hitting the ground.

But how?

It’s very simple, by increasing your mileage, the frequency of moderate runs and the pace of moderate runs gradually.

When you are increasing your mileage, the frequency of moderate runs and the pace of moderate runs, you should be careful because you get more chances to get injured. So, you should take your time and should not do hard or intense workouts in this period.

However, once you increased mileage enough and your body is used to the mileage, you should stick to it. By doing this, you have less risks of getting injured. Many people including doctors don’t know this.

Many people think that the more you run, the more risks you have of getting injured. But the truth is, the more mileage your body is used to, the less risks you have of getting injured. This is the truth.

Again, because high mileage increases your recovery ability and resistance ability of your feet hitting the ground.

Also, your maximal muscle power is also an important factor. Comparing your recovery ability and resistance ability of your feet hitting the ground, it is a smaller factor. But still it is important.

The idea is very simple.

Let’s say you can lift a 100kg dumbbell with one arm maximally. And I can lift only a 20kg dumbbell with one arm.

If we repeat lifting a 20kg dumbbell 50 times, which one has more risks of getting injured?

Of course, I have much more risks of getting injured. Because I get much more tired and I’m very doubtful if I can lift the dumbbell 50 times.

The idea is the same.

The faster you are able to sprint, the less fatigue your legs get when you run 4:00/km pace. Less fatigue means, having less risks of getting injured.

Especially, if you are a middle distance runner, it’s a big factor.

For example, one runner can run 400m 48 seconds and I’m able to run 400m only 57 seconds with the maximal effort.

If both of us do 10 times 400m in 62 seconds with 2 minutes recovery jogging, I have more risks of getting injured because it has more impact on my legs than 400m 48 seconds runners’ legs if all other conditions are completely same.

Most amateur runners are not middle-distance runners. I know that. That’s why I described that this was a small factor.

However, I want all of you not to miss one thing. there is a difference between that you don’t need to increase your maximal muscle power and that you should not decrease your maximal muscle power.

If you don’t train your maximal muscle power, you are losing it.

Whatever it is, if you don’t appreciate what you have and do not use it, you lose it. Health, money, intelligence, sales ability, sexy women (men), friends, mentors, luck, whatever it is.

If you want to keep it, appreciate it and use it sometimes.

So, I also suggest you to sprint with the maximal effort once a week or once in two weeks.

It’s not difficult.

You can do 8 times 10 seconds full sprint during your 10km easy runs or you can do 5 times 10 seconds uphill sprints with the maximal effort with walking back to the start point for the recovery after your easy run or moderate run. That’s it. That’s enough to keep your sprint ability.

Or it might be also a good idea, you hit a very strong man and try to run away from him with the maximal effort and repeat it 5 times. But I cannot take responsibility for what will happen if you get caught.

Anyway, increase your mileage, frequency of moderate runs and the speed of moderate runs gradually and do some sprints once a week or in two weeks. That’s it. I hope this article helps you a lot.

Lastly, if you want to learn more about how to run faster, please click here to download my free e-book ‘the three factors you should know to get faster dramatically without overtraining and injuries’.