Prehab for Runners

Michael Conlon

If you’ve been a runner or endurance athlete for any period of time, chances are good that you’ve experienced aches and pains throughout the training process. You know: it’s that nagging soreness in your hamstrings, or the periodic pain in your knees, or the tightness in your hips that doesn’t seem to go away.

What’s the first thing most runners do when they feel something? We run through it, of course. But that’s a mistake! Pain is your body’s signal that something is imbalanced—and it’s those initial aches and pains that can become something bigger, hampering your performance and possibly preventing you from getting to the start line.

The good news is, you can reverse the repetitive stress of training. Incorporating prehabilitation – or “prehab” – into your training regimen is one of the most effective ways to minimize limitations, which in turn allows you to train consistently at maximum effort and feel more prepared for your race.

Here’s the catch: prehab requires you to proactively take care of yourself rather than waiting until your body is at the point of breaking down. The goal is PREhabilitation, not REhabilitation.

As physical therapist Kelly Starrett says in his great book, Ready to Run, “All human beings should be able to perform basic maintenance on themselves.” If you’re asking your body to withstand the stress and impact of running, then it’s your job to support that body.

Here are a few keys to functionally preparing your body for the sport of running:

Incorporate maintenance work into your daily routine

We’ve talked in the past about the importance of dynamic stretching and self-myofascial release (foam rolling) – but despite the fact that we KNOW how beneficial these are in improving range of motion and tissue health, most runners still neglect to do them regularly.

Here’s the thing: supporting your body and proactively addressing weaknesses through regular maintenance is not just about injury prevention; it’s also about enabling yourself to get the most out of each and every training session. Starrett makes a good point: “When you fix problems and retrain your body to move well, you also allow for greater performance—more power, more speed, and you’ll be able to hold it together longer, too.”

He establishes a standard that is worth taking to heart: all it takes is a minimum of 10 minutes a day for maintenance work—but that means no days off, no excuses. You don’t always have to do the same thing, either. Maybe one day, a “hotspot” in your piriformis crops up. So after your run, spend 10 minutes mobilizing your glute muscles, working out the tissues above and below the hotspot. If you have more time throughout the day to focus on other global muscle groups, even better. But make sure you’re at least getting in 10 minutes a day, every day.

Try these three simple mobility drills to improve your range of motion and increase your capacity, focusing on your:

• Ankles -- please click HERE 
• Hips -- please click HERE and
• Thoracic spine -- please click  HERE  

Build in a formal warm up and cool down as part of your workout

How many times have you woken up in the morning, thrown your clothes on and immediately gone out for a run? Or worked 8 solid hours staring at a computer screen, then gone straight from your desk to the park for a workout?

We’ve all done it – and yet, we short change ourselves when we fail to adequately prepare our muscles for work, or give them a chance to recovery properly after we’ve completed a workout.

Running drills are a great way to get the blood flowing while also practicing the movements we ask our body to go through for the sport of running. It’s really hard to heel strike when skipping or doing high knees. These drills (and others, such as butt kicks, side shuffles, karioka, strides and more) enable your body to naturally land on your mid- or forefoot and below your center of mass.

Don’t limit yourself to doing these drills in one direction. Because our bodies move in three planes of motion (forward-backward, side-to-side and in rotation), we should train them in a variety of directions. Check out this video of how to do high knees in all three planes of motion by clicking HERE. 

Increase “running” strength to support good movement patterns

Runners oftentimes overlook the role that functional strength plays in improving performance. The key is in building running-specific strength to improve your stride length, which along with stride rate (i.e. cadence) is a key component to increasing speed.

Squatting, when done with good form, is an extremely effective exercise for runners because it helps you to access power from your posterior chain. Because running is essentially a single-leg sport, training your body with single-leg activities will help you activate your all-powerful glutes.

Try doing single leg squats with toe touch with hand reaches in all 3 planes to build glute strength. Please click HERE to view a demonstration video.

Blogmaster's Note: Michael Conlon is the founder and owner of Finish Line Physical Therapy, which he opened in 2006 to provide the highest quality of care, service, and personal attention in a comfortable, supportive, and friendly atmosphere. He has been a New York State licensed physical therapist since 1997. He is a certified full-body Active Release Techniques provider and is recognized as a Fellow of Applied Functional Science (FAFS) through the internationally acclaimed Gray Institute. He is passionate about endurance sports, both as a participant and coach, and has run 24 marathons and completed three Ironman triathlons. As a coach for the NYC chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma’s Team in Training program since 2002, Michael has trained hundreds of runners, from beginners to advanced marathoners.  -Dave K.