In my work with athletes, ranging from park runners up to World and Olympic champions, one of the key differences I’ve seen that separates the elite is that they know when to push themselves, and they know when to back off. They know that missing half a session because you’re concerned about an injury is better than pushing on, getting hurt, and then missing an entire week, if not more. The number one priority, no matter what event you are training for, is to get to the starting line in one piece. After all the training you’ve put in, the worst thing would be to line up carrying an injury and not being able to give it all you’ve got on the day of the race.

There’s a couple of reasons people who are new to running get injured. One is that anytime you start a new activity it takes a little while for your body to adjust to the new demands you are placing on it. Until you develop the strength required you are at risk of straining something.

Another thing a lot of runners do is get excited about their improvement and become highly motivated to take their training to the next level. So they start increasing the volume of running, or the intensity of their running, or both at the same time. Ultimately they try to do too much too soon. If you make big changes to the volume or intensity of your training in a short amount of time you are at risk of injury.

Another thing that catches a lot of runners out (and even though I should know better I am guilty of this myself sometimes), is not knowing when you should stop. For some people, this is because they are really striving for a particular goal and they want to push as hard as they can. But for others it’s simply a matter of not knowing how to differentiate between “good pain” and “bad pain”.

It’s a fine line; you want to push yourself to get fitter, but if you push too hard you can hurt yourself. When you’re exercising, there inevitably comes a time when you will feel a bit of discomfort. When you reach that point you might wonder whether you can keep going and push through it, or if doing so could cause an injury. There is such a thing as ‘good pain’, which is the pain you feel during exercise but in the absence of an injury. Then there’s ‘bad pain’, which is the pain you feel when you have suffered an injury.

So how do you tell the difference between good pain and bad pain? In other words, what are the signs that you may have injured yourself and you should stop your workout?

Bad pain has the following characteristics:

• The pain you’re feeling is ‘sharp’
• The pain you’re feeling is ‘shooting’, or accompanied by numbness, tingling or pins and needles
• There was a sudden onset of pain
• The pain developed in association with something ‘popping’, ‘clicking’, ‘snapping’ or ‘giving way’ underneath you.
• The pain is still there after a few days. I have seen so many people that have put up with pain for a week or more hoping it will magically disappear. If the pain is not going away after a few days, don’t wait, contact your health professional.

What does good pain feel like? Think about when you climb a really tall set of stairs or a steep hill. As you start to get out of breath, you get less oxygen to your muscles. At that point you start to develop lactic acid. At the beginning you feel almost nothing, then it becomes slightly uncomfortable, then if you’re able to keep going, it becomes really uncomfortable. So we would say that one point of differentiation from bad pain is that good pain has more of a gradual build-up.

The location of the pain is also a clue. Good pain will be generalised to a region, whereas bad pain is usually quite localised. For example, if you’re ‘feeling the burn’ in your quads from climbing stairs (good pain), then most likely the entire front of your leg will feel it, all the way from your knees to your hips. On the other hand, if you tear or strain your quadriceps (bad pain), the location of the pain will be a lot more specific – you’ll feel sharp pain right at the point of the tear and in a small area surrounding it.

I’m sure you’ve all watched something like the Olympic Games, where you can see prime examples of the two types of pain. For instance, in the 100m when someone tears their hamstring, they grab their leg as if they’ve been shot. They feel sharp, shooting pain that has a sudden onset, the leg gives way underneath them and they’re unable to continue.

Then you see someone in a longer-distance event with a grimace on their face as they push on and on. They’re definitely in pain, but the pain has built up gradually and doesn’t affect their ability to keep running (well, for a while at least). While this is not a nice feeling, this is the ‘good pain’ we’re talking about.

There’s a fine line between pushing yourself and hurting yourself. It just comes down to using a bit of common sense. If in doubt, follow these Do’s and Don’ts:

Do:  

• Build up your training gradually.
• Warm up a little before going too hard (How To Warm up will be covered in Part 2 of this series , An Osteopaths Guide to Preventing Running Injuries. Check chrisjonesosteo.com.au for new articles every week)
• Listen to your body.

Don’t:

• Increase the amount you run by more than 10% a week.
• Suddenly start doing lots of high intensity sessions. Introduce them gradually.
• Ignore the warning signs of injury outlined above.

If something doesn’t feel right, you’re better off missing part of a session and being okay for your next session than trying to get a little bit more done and having to miss the rest of the week.

Dr Christopher Jones (Osteopath) has been consulted by World and Olympic champion athletes and worked on the medical staff of national teams for Athletics Australia. Prior to studying to be an Osteopath he completed a Sports Science degree majoring in Exercise Science. As a junior he competed in the 800 and 1500m, gaining selection in the Australian Junior Athletics Team in 1995. He still enjoys running 3 times a week and if you see him training at ES Marks on a Tuesday night feel free to ask him any questions you may have (depending on how much of his session he has done, he may or may not be able to speak).