How To Stay Injury Free Whilst (London*) Marathon Training

With the London Marathon* coming up at a rate of knots, we asked Stuart, our lower limb and sports injury specialist physio, to give us his advice on how to stay injury free whilst training for a marathon:

Runners, joggers and walkers view the marathon as the ultimate fitness test and challenge with a record number of people now participating globally. Many will have never completed this kind of run before and are also not seasoned runners. However, this does not stop many of us trying to complete this challenging and arduous task and getting that medal for the 26.2. 

Training for a marathon can be a daunting task as many people are worried about being injured and how they will react if this is the first time they have ventured into the higher mileage brackets. It has been viewed in the evidence that most people who do participate in the marathon will suffer from some injury during their training or the race. For example, it has been seen that novice runners sustained 30-38 repetitive strain injuries per 1000 hours of running while marathoners running more than 200 minutes per week sustained less than 10 RRIs per 1000 hours of running.

There are many ways to help reduce the likelihood of injury such as good preparation/warm up, having a good base level of strength and stability monitoring your build up gradually and of course having rest days:

Warm up:

The purpose of a warm up is to increase core body temperature, muscle activation, joint mobility and prepare the body for activity. The ability of the muscle to contract efficiently can benefit greatly as the quadriceps can help reduce up to 60% of the load through the knee joint when landing during a run thus being warmed up appropriately can prevent any knee injuries.

For the ideal warm up we should incorporate a high number of dynamic tasks such as lunges, calf raises, toe walks, leg swings. The evidence has been shown that a Dynamic Warm Ups performed pre training can also enhance and improve performance.

Strength and Stability Exercising:

A base level of strength and stability is required to undergo any exercise or physical task. For example if we are running and have a cadence speed of 140 then we are impacting 70 times on each leg every minute that requires the ability of the body to absorb force and propel us forward while trying to maintain good kinetic chain control and stability.

Resistance training has shown improvements of up to 8% following a period of resistance- or strength-based training during a normal running training plan. This can be attributed to improving running economy and improved neuromuscular control. When we consider that any small improvement can impact running economy the benefits may have a larger impact on long distances such as a marathon. 

Training plan: 

It is a advised that you don't increase your mileage by more than 10%. The 10% rule is one of the most important principles to adhere to help prevent injuries. As most running injuries are overuse in nature the 10% rule can help prevent this. It may be a long and slow process by only increasing the 10% but it will help keep you running safe and for longer.

Rest Days: 

Having rest days helps not just your body to recover but reduces the likelihood of injury. It has been seen that less than two days rest in endurance runners had an increase of 5.2 fold of overuse injuries. Every day that we exercise causes microdamage to muscles and without adequate rest we don’t repair. Build in a few rest days each week to help recharge, reduce injury and then improve your training and performance.

If you experience any prolonged niggles or pain during your marathon training period, don’t ignore it. Get expert advice and help. Call us on 02030 12 12 22 to book an appointment with one of our specialist physios.

* Other marathons are available.

Words by Stuart Mailer.