No one has a crystal ball and can predict who will or will not get injured from running. Now, however, a new study called a meta-analysis (a study that reviews many studies on one subject) evaluated studies of running injuries and published the following interesting results:
- The overall incidence of lower-extremity injuries varied from 19.4% to 79.3%, thus the range is wide, which implies that it is difficult to predict who will get injured.
- The most predominant site of injury was the knee.
- Higher age was reported as a significant risk factor to incur running injuries in four high-quality studies, but two other high-quality studies reported that higher age was a significant protective factor, thus the evidence is conflicting and so it's not clear if running when you are older will cause or protect you from injury.
- Running more than 40 miles per week was a risk factor for both male and female runners to incur lower-extremity running injuries, although the risk was higher for males, perhaps because they tend to weigh more than women.
- There appears to be no association between the use of a warm-up and lower-extremity injuries. This means that stretching beforehand may not reduce your risk of injury. This is not a surprise, as there is virtually no research to show that stretching prevents any type of injury.
0 comments