One Exercise to Help Reduce Injuries in Running

Sounds too good to be true, right?  One exercise that can help reduce the likelihood of being injured when running?

Well, in the time that I have spent evaluating runners whether it be in the office or at running clinics, there is one area of weakness that almost shows up invariably.  I have evaluated runners after running anywhere from 2-20 miles and also when completely rested.  No matter if rested or after running, one thing that a lot of runners have difficulty with is being able to balance on one leg with their eyes closed. Try it.  How long can you go before losing your balance?

So do you really need to be able to balance on one leg to run better or to prevent injury?  Potentially.   The ability to balance on one leg, especially with your eyes closed is a good indication of how well the foot and ankle react to changes in position.  The more efficiently the joint receptors and muscles of the foot and ankle respond to these changes, the less excursion the joints and muscles of the foot and ankle go through.  By minimizing this movement in the foot and ankle, the muscles have to work less to stabilize the foot and ankle and can use their energy more to push you forward.

No matter where you do most of your running, chances are the surface is not perfectly level, save for a treadmill -- we'll get to that in a future post (treadmill versus overground running).  The subtle differences in terrain as we run present challenges to the foot and ankle that they have to adapt to. Couple this with the fact that you are having to control 4-5 times your bodyweight when running.  If you are having trouble remaining stable on one foot on level ground imagine trying to run on an imperfect surface like a road or especially a trail with 4 people on your back.

Every time your foot strikes the ground it has to adjust for the imperfections in the surface.  We cannot use our vision to help us adjust for this and have to rely solely on the joint receptors and muscles of the foot and ankle to make the corrections and to make them very quickly or else we risk rolling our ankle.

If we estimate that we strike the ground an average of 2,000 times per mile at 4-5 times our bodyweight  that's a lot of opportunities for muscles, ligaments, tendons to become stressed.  That is also a lot of times for muscles to have to react to the changes in terrain.  The more inefficient they are at correcting for this, the more fatigued they become.

 All the different things that happen to the foot and ankle and their response is very complicated.  However, improving their ability to withstand these challenges is very simple.   Practice standing on one leg with your eyes closed.  Try doing this for 1 minute on each leg.  Work up to being able to balance on one leg with eyes closed for 1 minute without losing balance.  If you can reach this goal then your risk of injury will be significantly reduced and your muscles will be less fatigued when you run as they will adapt more quickly and effectively to changes in terrain.

So it comes down to 1-1-1.  That's one minute on left leg-one minute on right leg-goal of one minute without loss of balance.