Need some professional advice? Gregory Moy, PT, DPT, CSCS from our 57th St clinic, chimes in to provide his guidance on preventing running injuries:
One of the most important ways to prevent injury is to make sure that you are allowing your body to adapt to the amount of running that you are doing, and take care of your body to prevent injury.
Here are 3 things runners can do to take care of their bodies & prevent injury:
Warm Up Dynamically Before You Run!
Most of us don’t like to warm up before we run. However, research has shown that a dynamic warm up is most effective in improving quadriceps strength, hamstring flexibility, and even vertical jumping ability.What is a dynamic warm up? It is series of sports specific movements that prepare the muscles for performance. Here are some ideas for what you can do on the streets of Manhattan before you run.
Click above to watch our Warm Up and Cool Down stretching video!
Stretch After You Run!
Stretching is important. It increases muscle flexibility and range of motion, signals your body to relax, and just feels really good. When you don’t stretch, your muscles can tighten up, stress your joints and change the way you move. Now, you shouldn’t stretch right before you run, but you should stretch daily! Most of us know some easy hamstring and quadriceps stretches to do, but here are a couple of other stretches that can be helpful in keeping you loose.
Cross Train!
It is always important to vary the type of exercise you do. Any single type of exercise will overuse some muscles, and underuse others. To ensure that those differences don’t lead to injury, it is a good idea to supplement your main type of exercise. That could mean anything from playing basketball, doing pilates or yoga, or weightlifting. Here are a couple exercises that you can do to help supplement your running.
