Overuse Injuries Are Self-Inflicted Wounds

Although many people think of ‘getting injured’ as being some type of physical trauma such as a torn muscle, sprained ankle or a broken bone, the most common cycling and running injuries are actually due to overuse.

I consider myself to be an expert on overuse injuries. During my 35-plus years of cycling, running and multi-sport competition, I’ve racked up enough overuse injuries to have earned a Ph.D. in ‘How to Hurt Myself by Being Stupid’.

Overuse, defined as repetitive micro-trauma to tendons, bones and joints, is usually the result of doing too much exercise without appropriate recovery. If you have pre-existing conditions related to previous physical trauma such as an injured knee or poor bike/run biomechanics, overuse will often further exacerbate those conditions.

The most common causes of overuse injuries are increasing the intensity or duration of workouts too quickly, doing too many workouts without taking recovery days, not doing enough flexibility and strength exercises or changing equipment without allowing for a reasonable period of easy adaptation.

Most athletes (at all levels) tend to be highly motivated individuals with set goals they want to accomplish. To reach those goals of biking or running faster and further, we often fall into the trap of ‘no pain, no gain’ and try to do hard workouts day after day.

If the athletic improvements don’t come as fast as expected, we’ll usually chalk it up to not working out hard enough and increase the duration or intensity of our workouts even more.

The inevitable end result is some ‘weak link’ in our body breaks down and we develop overuse injuries such as rotator cuff tendinitis, Achilles tendinitis, shin splints, patellofemoral pain syndrome, iliotibial band friction syndrome, iliopsoas tendinitis or painfully tight lower back muscles.

Medical terminology aside, overuse injuries are a pain for cyclists and runners (pun intended) and they are almost always self-inflicted wounds.

The good news is that overuse injuries can usually be prevented if we follow common-sense guidelines related to both our workouts and to the selection/use of sports equipment.

The first line of defense against overuse injuries is to accept that our bodies gradually adapt to new training stresses (the key word is ‘gradually’). We get faster and stronger by applying a small overload stress to muscles and then allowing the body to adapt to that overload by resting or doing easier workouts until the muscles have recovered and become stronger.

We then continue the improvement process by applying a slightly larger stress, recovering again, and continuing this gradual improvement process over time.

The most common mistakes (and what leads to most overuse injuries) are trying to increase the workout load too quickly without taking the recovery days or continuing to push hard even though your body says it’s time to ease off for a while.

Using myself as an example (and also proving that years of experience doesn’t automatically make a person smarter), I recently wrapped up an eight-week period during which I trained for and raced an off-road half-marathon, a 50-mile road cycling race, an epically long bike workout that included a hilly one-hour time trial race and finished things up by competing in a tough 100-kilometer dirt road cycling event.

Instead of responding to the signs of doing too much without rest and recovery (i.e., constant aches and pains) I continued to ‘train through the pain’ with the end result being a severely inflamed knee that makes even easy bike and run workouts painful.

Another trigger for overuse injuries is changing equipment without allowing the body to gradually adjust. New running shoes may alter your foot strike, a new bicycle that may or may not fit your body properly, or items such as aero bars or different pedals on your bike can all lead to overuse injuries because of the new stresses placed on muscles, tendons and joints.

The bottom line is that most of us will develop some type of overuse injuries, so the key to getting past them is to identify the root cause, correct it and then follow the RICE protocol (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) until you’ve recovered.

A proper recovery plan for an overuse injury should also include strategies such as walking instead of running, icing sore muscles and joints, resting more, running on soft surfaces, spinning in an easy gear on your bike instead of mashing a big gear, stretching after every workout, warming up well before workouts, and focusing on strengthening the muscles that stabilize joints.

Those same recovery plan strategies will also help preventing overuse injuries, so work them into your routine and listen when your body tells you to back off for a few days.

It's actually very simple - doing too much without appropriate recovery will usually result in an overuse injury.