Injuries & Load Management
As the prevalence of running events increases, an increasing amount of people are turning to running programs to help them achieve their goals.
There is no shortage of running programs available. Regardless of whether or not a program is provided by a coach or the internet…the one thing they must be is individualised.
When looking at injury prevention and/or returning from an injury (regardless of type of physical activity), an understanding of the relationship between training load and our capacity to manage load is needed.
Our bodies are incredibly capable of adapting to load. But, we need to be patient and respect the time frames associated with tissue healing and adaptation. Increase load too quickly and our bodies can’t adapt quickly enough.
When looking at load management, there are so many things that need to be considered. The primary considerations are: Training Load, Tissue Load & Tissue Load Capacity.
Includes the following aspects of training:
**It is NOT as simple as calculating weekly mileage.
Tissue Load Capacity
Many factors can have an impact on the capacity of our tissues to tolerate and manage load. For example…
Aside from the factors listed above, essentially anything that has the potential to affect the function of our cells and related tissue will have an impact on both tissue healing and our ability to tolerate load.
These will be different for everyone, and can include: stress, sleep, fatigue, diet & nutrition, abdominal adiposity, hormone and endocrine function, immune function, fear, motivation, central & peripheral sensitisation, type of force, cellular response, local tissue response, genetics, body mass etc.
It must also be considered that life outside specific sport, exercise and activity will load tissue. Overall tissue load is affected by training, work, hobbies etc.
We can not address only one aspect of load and hope to be successful. We can’t stress enough that the ability and capacity of an individual to manage load is specific to the individual. Therefore, their training program and their load progression needs to be individualised. Generic programs are inherently risky.