Does It Hurt When You Do This?

Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on July 29, 2014 at 3:02 PM, updated July 29, 2014 at 3:10 PM

"If you don't use it, you lose it.  If you use it, it breaks." -- educational psychology professor, University of South Florida, ca. 2004

If you have managed to read more than three months of my ramblings, it's likely I've spoken on at least one occasion about an overuse injury of one kind or another.  Plantar fasciitis and achilles tendinopathy are the most common, with patellofemoral joint pain and popliteal tendinopathy not too part behind.  If you're really unlucky you might end up dealing with an iliotibial band issue at one time or another.

Metatarsalgia?  What's up with that?

Just when I thought I had heard all of the possible ways I could ding myself by doing too much and resting too little another speed bump on the (supposed) superhighway of running life shows up.  Like many other overuse injuries, this one is not one of those acts of also is caused by the "terrible 'toos;'" too much mileage, too little recovery...too old a pair of shoes...too bad a running surface...and so on. 

Another one of those "terrible 'toos'" worth considering; the most foolish thing a runner can (try to) do when dealing with an overuse injury is return to running too soon.  Adjusting ones' gait to not aggravate a cranky IT band or a sore heel can lead to another (more seriously) injured body a pulled hamstring.  The injuries which add up don't decrease in intensity, more so the opposite.  And it's not a pretty sight.  I watched CrossFit athlete Talayna Fortunato try to do an overhead squat with a dinged-up hamstring this last weekend.  I felt her pain, both as a form of empathy and because of my own stupidity.

Nobody wants to take "time off."  Even physiologists and fitness professionals agree that complete rest is not the best course of action.  The most important provision when searching for an activity to (temporarily) replace running is:

Find an activity which does not aggravate the injury.  Period.

Cross-training, when healthy, keeps you from getting burned out over running.  When dinged, it can help you maintain your sanity.  Some of my favorite modalities include:

Spinning - think of the Tour de France. Without the doping tests.

Positives: controlled conditions (no traffic), minimal equipment hassles (no flat tires), and the ability to work out at your own intensity level.  I can have classmates who whoop and hoot in between songs...I'll just continue to grind it out in silence.

Negatives: don't expect your bike-handling skills to improve. You might find a bike that has for platform pedals that accept workout shoes and aren't as efficient.

Burn: a 40-minute class burn between 400 and 500 calories, depending on the intensity.

Elliptical trainer - all of the motions of running or cross-country skiing, without the jarring of a treadmill.

Positives: most good machines have programs which let you to work at different intensities. You can let your legs and lungs feel the burn without beating yourself to death.

Negatives: not all elliptical trainers have the most comfortable range of motion.

Burn: 40 minutes in fat-burning mode burns between 600 and 700 calories.

Treadmill - the original, and probably the most commonly used piece of indoor cardiovascular exercise equipment.

Positives: infinite variations on a theme. Walk, jog or run a hill, interval, heart rate, or random profile. The feedback on most treadmills is pretty much the same as elliptical trainers.

Negatives: without fans which replicate the airflow you would get on the road you will get hot.  Quickly.  Some decks have "shocks;" others not so much.

Burn: an eight minute mile burns about 500 calories in the space of 40 minutes.

Swimming - the one cross-training activity that I believe really transfers over to running.

Positives: no jarring, no pounding, easy on your muscles and joints. You know when you're improving in the pool. The discipline of breathing (inhaling especially) at the right time pays dividends during the hard second mile of a 5K run. Get a swimsuit and a pair of goggles. Everything else is all optional.

Negatives: technically-complex unless you plan to limit yourself to easy breaststroke. Breathe wrong and you're likely to end up with a lung full of pool water.

Burn: an hour of good, vigorous swimming can burn up to 600 calories.

Rowing - want to work large muscle groups without beating yourself to death?  Once you get the hang of the catch, pull and recovery phases rowing is pretty darn relaxing.

Positives: most good machines have all the power and distance data up front; some will link to whatever heart rate monitor strap you're wearing.  Like other machines many also have distance, time and interval-based programs.

Negatives:  almost like swimming, it's a dance.  A friend from my spinning class was flailing away on a machine last week.  Suffice it to say that it was painful to watch.  CrossFit enthusiasts make it look difficult; you just need to know how to adjust the resistance.

Burn:  500-to-600 calories in 50 minutes.

Remember the joke about the guy who goes into the doctor's office?  The guy says, "Doc, it hurts when I do this..." and the doctor says...
