Wednesday, September 8, 2010

How to prevent Achilles injuries

From Running Times online

A Runner’s Achilles Heel

How to prevent Achilles injuries

By Mackenzie Lobby

As featured in the Web Only issue of Running Times Magazine

A common and sometimes chronic grievance, Achilles tendinopathies can be, both literally and figuratively, a runner’s Achilles heel. The media’s constant chatter about Achilles injuries only serves to highlight their prevalence. Reporters recently speculated that Usain Bolt’s loss to Tyson Gay at the Diamond League Meet in Stockholm was the result of a slow recovery from an Achilles injury. David Beckham’s highly publicized Achilles rupture prevented him from playing in this summer’s World Cup. Even Alex Wong, a contestant on this season’s So You Think You Can Dance, had his rug-cutting dreams dashed by an Achilles laceration.

While these types of injuries occur among soccer players, dancers and everyone in between, runners are perhaps the likeliest candidates. Handling up to 12 times your body weight, that tendon has a big job. Achilles tendinopathies, which include acute tendinitis and the more chronic tendinosis, account for nearly 11 percent of running injuries. As many of these injuries result from training errors, experts agree that education about proper training and rehabilitation is the key to combating them.

Read on here.

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