Injuries are inevitable, especially in such a demanding game like AFL football where it requires a unique combination of endurance, strength, speed and agility, as well a frequent high impact collisions. We asked our trainer Dylan Vizzarri who plays Division 1 Football for Blackburn to write an article about his personal journey of rehabilitating his own body from many severe injuries over the past 4 years. Many of these injuries could have been avoided if he knew what he knows now, saving him from a lot of pain and frustration. Some of these injuries have seen him miss an entire football season! This is a must read for any amateur football players with to avoid the mistakes we see so many players make with their fitness training methods.

I have suffered many injuries with most of them in the past few years from mistakes I made in with my training methods and preparation. Throughout my career in junior football I can barely remember missing a game through injury, with the first major injury when I was 19 when I broke my ankle getting tackled. Since that day I have endured a flow on effect of injuries including chronic and debilitating groin issues, stress fractures, along with multiple calf and hamstring strains. During these past few years I have learned many big lessons of how to avoid several of these injuries that were caused by my impatience and desire to be as fit and strong as possible. I plan to share with you these lessons so you do not make the same mistakes I made.

Although some injuries may be out of your control and a result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time (such as when I broke my ankle), measures can be put in place to reduce the likelihood of others. Moving well in the gym and gaining adequate levels mobility, stability, and strength are an extremely important aspect of any training program for sports. This is common knowledge among many great sports and conditioning coaches and trainers specializing in rehabilitation and injury prevention.

Nick has written some great articles about strength training for sports and specifically AFL football before you can check out in the links below.

• Strength training for AFL football
• How to choose the right exercises for your sport
• Strength training for runners

You will also find some excellent FREE reports at the bottom of the page you can download instantly that have step by step programs drawn up for you with how to structure your strength workouts correctly.

What I want to discuss in this article is two other important factors that are often missed.

They are:

1. The importance of running technique (training efficiency)
2. Load management (patience)

You can gain great amounts functional strength with perfect technique in the gym but if you then suddenly start running at high intensities or in excessive volumes with poor technique, problems are very likely to occur.

These are two lessons I have learnt, albeit the hard way, since injuring my ankle. I would do everything right in my physical preparation from a gym sense but then abuse the privilege of being able to run by completing gruelling running sessions that neglected the importance of technique and load management. My intentions were in the right place it was my desire to train hard that got the better of me. I forgot that I needed to earn the right to train like that again, and I must be careful to not abuse that type of training intensity if I want to remain injury free.

RUNNING TECHNIQUE – The importance of efficiency

The impact and strain running puts on your body is substantial. With each step, up to 3 times your body weight goes through your joints. Times that by however many repetitions you do in a session (thousands), and you now begin to realise how demanding running is on the body.

Add dysfunction or poor technique to that and there is no wonder why so many people experience issues within the first 4-6 weeks once they commence or re-commence running after a lay off. Whether that be running on its own or through sport or any other activity.

Common running injuries we see are patellofemoral pain, Achilles and gluteal tendinopathy, bone stress reactions, ITB pain, piriformis syndrome, and plantar fasciitis. I have provided some links below to detailed articles explaining how to correct these injuries.

• Best exercises for plantar fasciitis
• Why ankle stiffness causes a chain reaction of other injuries
• What is the underlying cause of ITB friction syndrome?
• Weak VMO & Patellofemoral pain

The one thing that is common to all of them with the sporting athlete is running technique.

When looking at upright running mechanics (when into a normal running rhythm), the most common mistake people make, in my experience, is over striding which often results in a subsequent "heel strike" at ground contact. Not only is this inefficient but it can also lead to any of the previously mentioned injuries.

Over-striding is when your foot contacts the ground in front of your centre of mass (in front of your hips as opposed to directly underneath) with each step. This results in a braking force which ultimately slows you down and puts more stress on joints, ligaments, and tendons.

Many runners, coaches and trainers still utilise and advocate a heel strike at ground contact. However, when you understand the function of the structures that occur at the sole of the foot and posterior (back) aspect of the lower leg (calf/ankle), it makes sense to utilise a midfoot ground contact.

Without getting overly technical, the Achilles tendon acts as a shock absorber, it recycles stored energy like a spring to protect joints up the chain and enhances running efficiency by allowing forward propulsion. In conjunction with this, the intrinsic muscles at the sole of your foot, stabilise the foot and ankle with each impact and assists in the absorption and transmission of force. I found out my foot stability was very poor and a massive contributor to many of my problems.

Optimal foot stability cannot be achieved with heel strikes, instead, large amounts of force are shocked into the foot and up the leg with minimal absorption as its pretty much results in bone hitting the ground. Below is some pictures Nick shared earlier this year in relation to ITB friction syndrome and these provide great visuals of what poor stability may look like.

In my opinion the most effective running technique is called the “pose method”. It involves landing on the mid-foot and underneath the same side hip at ground contact, and then using the hamstrings through a cyclic like action of the leg to propel the runner forward.

The pose method includes:

• A constant, slight forward body lean
• A mid-foot ground contact underneath the centre of mass (hip)
• A cyclic like action of the leg coming off the ground (swing phase) – pulling the leg through quickly and maintaining a bent knee throughout.
• Minimal ground contact time and increased cadence as opposed to longer strides (this allows for ground contact under COM and reduces breaking forces, putting less strain on joints, ligaments and tendons)

A simple drill I like to use for learning this is shown below.

Change in technique will not occur overnight, however, with consistent practice and time you will see eventually see significant changes take place. It’s amazing how easy and effortless running can feel like when efficient and effective running mechanics are utilised. Energy is conserved which enables you to run at higher intensities for longer periods of time. Who wouldn’t want that?

The best part is nothing hurts!

LOAD MANAGEMENT: The importance of patience

The second mistake has more to do with how quickly you progress your program. The body needs time to repair damaged tissues and time to recover in order to strengthen and improve. When recovery is cut short, the repair process cannot keep up with the stress being applied to the body, resulting in injury or burn out.

A great video about over training and the principle of less is more is shown below.

You may have heard of the principal progressive overload. This basically means gradually increasing stress or load through the manipulation of training variables (frequency, intensity, time/volume, type) over time. Where you start is very much dependent on the individual, their current fitness level and training history.

However, a very simple example of this with little context is:

• Week 1 – 2 x 20 min runs at low-mod intensity
• Week 2 – 3 x 20 min runs at low-mod intensity
• Week 3 – 3 x 25 min runs at low-mod intensity
• Week 4 – 3 x 20 min runs at moderate intensity

A rough rule is to progress by only 10% of volume every week until you reach the level you need.

Investing time on technique early on and progressively building from there will not only make you more efficient and effective but it will also prevent injuries from occurring and facilitate a sustainable running future. Play the long game. Take time to master technique and work towards a goal in a progressive and sustainable manner.

Great articles with more information about recovery and progressive overload are in the links below.

• Best foods and methods to speed up recovery from training
• How to avoid over-training by understanding the intensity rule

Free Reports to Help You

For more information on some of the things we have briefly touched on grab a copy of the free reports shown below.

Click the image below of the report you need.

Summary

The desire to get the most out of our body and back to full fitness as fast as possible has hurt me so many times. I know there are many of you reading this article who are like me, trying to find the missing ingredient or magic formula to maximize performance success. Our determination and drive can sometimes get in the way of logic and patience and it is really easy to push too hard, train too long, or simply do way too much. It is in our nature to strive for perfection and think that more work equals great results. I hope this article has given you some ideas of how to avoid these mistakes and improve your running fitness without the risk of injury.

If you live in Melbourne and would like to know more about our Sports Specific program please click the image below to schedule a FREE Sports assessment and consultation and I will be in touch within 24 hours to book a time.

About The Author

Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 15 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specialises in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.

References:

• Functional Training for Sports - by Mike Boyle
• Movement - By Gray Cook
• Corrective Exercise Solutions - by Evan Osar
• Athletic Body Balance by Gray Cook
• Diagnosis & Treatment Of Movement Impairment Syndromes - By Shirley Sahrman
• Low Back Disorders - by Stuart McGill
• Back Pain Mechanic - by Stuart McGill
• Anatomy Trains - by Thomas Meyers
• Motor Learning and Performance - By Richard A Schmidt and Timothy D Lee
• Assessment & Treatment Of Muscle Imbalance - By Vladimir Janda
• How To Eat, Move & Be Healthy by Paul Chek
• Scientific Core Conditioning Correspondence Course - By Paul Chek
• Advanced Program Design - By Paul Chek
• Twist Conditioning Sports Strength - By Peter Twist
• Twist Conditioning Sports Movement - By Peter Twist
• Twist Conditioning Sports Balance - By Peter Twist