USA Track & Field Announce Results of Pre-run Stretch Study

To stretch or not to stretch? That's a question millions of runners ask themselves daily, but results from a USA Track & Field-sponsored clinical trial involving close to 3,000 runners confirm there is no difference in the risk of injury for those who stretched before running and those who did not. Read more here.

According to researchers, if you already stretch before you run, keep doing so, because the number of injuries increased dramatically in runners who made it a habit to stretch and then stopped.

Two of the variables recorded were found to strongly influence injury rates; people with a higher body-mass-index were more likely to be injured as were people with a recent or chronic injury prior to participating in the study.

Exercises To Alleviate IT Ban Syndrome

In a study published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine (July 2000), Dr. Michael Fredericson, a physical medicine MD at Stanford University, compared 24 runners with ITB syndrome with 30 healthy runners and found the injured runners to have statistically significantly weaker hip abductors (mainly gluteus medius and minimus) than the non-injured runner -runningtimes.com

Check out the links here for a demo on how to strengthen your gluteus medius muscle. A weak one places additional stress on your IT Band.

Exercise to Strengthen a Weak Gluteus Medius

Part II

Shin Splints? Training Well is A Must See Video

This is an excellent video that illustrates the potential problems caused by overstriding.

Matt Tegenkamp Receives Treatment I Never Heard Of

Tegenkamp, 27, has been receiving a variety of treatments, including a procedure where the anti-inflammatory medication Dexamethasone is passed through the skin on his knee from a special pad. "There is a ion transfer and that drives the medication down through the skin," he explained. He also said he had been taking anti-inflammatory medications and even took a "rich platelets" treatment. "They take a pretty significant amount of your blood, then spin it down just to the platelets," he said. "They inject the platelets back to wherever you're having the pain, and it makes a chemical reaction through the body and causes a huge rush of blood to that area. The point of it is that the body will heal itself." -http://www.trackshark.com/news/updates/1170/

Quad Strength May Help Arthritic Knees

"Our results suggest that strong quadriceps muscles have an overall beneficial effect on knee osteoarthritis," the researchers said.

MY COMMENT: This study only found protection from cartilage loss in the lateral compartment of the patello-femoral joint. Researchers think a stronger vastus medialis (pulls the knee inward) may reduce cartilage loss around the joint. Too early to tell but not a bad idea for any runner to strengthen those quads.

Upper Back Pain

I've noticed some discomfort in my upper back during long runs, I suspect due to muscle weakness. I think I've just gotten weak over time and developed a forward lean- I'll focus on back extensions and lay on the foam roller (placed along the spine) a few minutes a day and see what happens. The older you get, the more these problems begin to pop up- Good Posture!