Week 83: Runners need to burn and rise like Phoenix

Extended version of Run&Bee column in Hindustan Times on 15th Feb 2020

Injuries in running, like in any other sport or exercise activities, are inevitable, but when they become long term, affecting your performance and more importantly stopping you from running, you need to go back to the drawing board.

There were no special classes taken to learn how to move as a sperm, as a foetus kicking around in our mother’s womb and then as an infant trying to ride that non-existent cycle while lying supine. Movement came naturally to us.

We all assume that our walking and running form is perfect because we have been at it for years or decades without entertaining the thought that we possibly have perfected the art of imperfection.

That coach or doctor, as experienced and learned as they might be, inspite of their best intentions, are playing a percentage game. They are suggesting what has possibly worked for 90% of the runners they have seen. But you could very well turn out to be part of the 10% who didn’t improve at all. 

To have a chance of getting back to running again and that too for life, you need to appreciate that you are your 100% and you alone know and understand yourself best.

Nor can you understand their pains. You need to figure how important your running is for you and work on it. 

Only then will they be willing to hear you out and understand why you need to get back. While you narrate your story, you’ll surprise yourself that you’ll come up with the underlying cause of your problem and the solution too.

Your previous exeperience, run times and distances are of no consequence. They mean nothing. You are currently injured. Plan is to get back to running for life. The best approach is to break it all down, demolish it all completely from the foundation itself. You then need to rebuild, one brick at a time, relearn to move the way you did as a child, the natural way. The more you resist, the worse it’s going to be. So just let go. 

To add to it…

Another major mistake people make is that they might have a body of a 45 year old but heart of a 17. Unlike reckless decisions as a teenager, now you need to think long term. You need to get those muscles to start working. Get on with basic exercises and movements rather than looking for complicated fad of the month or year exercise or machinery to do that fancy exercise. Remember basic exercises done with discipline is where the magic lies.