Painkillers and Training.

Corega

So I'm gonna get back into my fitness regime after the 3 months break of summer. My usual routine would be running, treadmill and outdoors on gravel, swimming and occasionally the steppers. The problem I'm having is the gravel and treadmill are killing my upper legs, now, I know this happens to most, if not all people, but it happens to me sooner than the majority. I'm wondering then what painkillers would be suitable if any. My diet is pretty good, it wasn't up until a few years ago, but it's getting better now, I take vitamin supplements, I don't drink or smoke substances when I'm in school (i.e. when I'm training) and I do all the proper stretches, at least the ones I know of. Suggestions?

tunney

Firstly, running on gravel and threadmills AFAIK does not affect everyones legs in the manner youa re talking about.

Secondly, the idea of taking painkillers to enhance your training is amazingly dumb.

Now that that is out of the way, what sort of pain do you get in your upper legs? What exactly are your upper legs?

You say

running, treadmill and outdoors on gravel,

do you do any other kind of running? If so does that hurt?

Corega

Firstly tunney, the painkillers are not to improve my training or endurance. I was merely asking if this was a good idea. They're to relieve the pain. The pain I get whether it be jogging, sprinting, on gravel, tread or grass is an intense, spasm-type pain in the upper thighs, to the point where I can't run anymore. And this happens, more often than not, after 15 minutes of training. Normally I wouldn't bother taking any pills for it, but sometimes the Brufen comes out, to help my back pains as well (not associated with training). So the question still stands...if I'm training and continously getting these pains, bearing in my mind that I will get my G.P. to have a look-see, what painkillers, if any, should I take?

And does anyone else suffer from these syptoms?

MrNuked

Do weights to strengthen the muscles that hurt when you run. I've never experienced that sort of thing in my life and I used to run both on treadmills and gravel very frequently, but I did a lot of hillwalking before I did much running, so those muscles were strengthened quite a bit.
Where I used to get pain when i ran was in my shins, and it would last for a few days.
I think taking painkillers to help you run is amazingly dumb too. For someone who doesn't drink or smoke you seem to have a surprisingly casual attitude to drugs.

tunney

Corega, I understand that painkillers are using for stopping pain. But one thing that every runner has to learn, one way or the other, is pain is there for a reason. I'm not talking about the "I've jsut ran 20 miles and my legs are sore" pain, but intense spasms of pain in the upper thighs is serious. Its not something that everyone gets, in fact I've never heard of it before in my life.

Before yuo start taking pain-killers to relieve a type of pain would sounds to be a warning sign, try and isolate the cause of the pain and remedy that rather than trying to deal with the effects.

You say you sprint, do you do much other running?
Do you warm up?
Do you stretch properly?
What age are you?
What height and weight are you?
Vanity and self-deluision aside, are you in good shape?

You sound like a young lad, this sort of pain is not normal, common, nor to be taken lightly and pain killers should never be taken as a substitute for sound, solid training.

Stark

I take anti-imflamatory painkillers at the moment while recovering from ITB friction syndrome (want to keep the swelling down). Wouldn't go out training though while I was on them.

Corega

Originally posted by MrNuked
For someone who doesn't drink or smoke you seem to have a surprisingly casual attitude to drugs.

Said I don't drink or smoke os scoil. I smoke ciggies atm, lungs are in shít state, but afaik smoking doesn't effect your legs. I drink occasionally during holidays.

You say you sprint, do you do much other running?

More jogging than sprinting. Every second day if not daily.

Do you warm up?

Yes, roughly five minutes of warm-up, not exactly the ideal warm-up, but it's better than nothing.

Do you stretch properly?

I stretch my legs properly before running, hips, shoulders and arms as well. And of course my back and neck before any work-out. Leg stretches would consist of, in this order, ankle stretches, hamstring stretch, calf/achilles stretch, quad/thing stretch, and then hips and on to the upper body.

What age are you?

17

What height and weight are you?

6'1 and 14½ stone.

Vanity and self-deluision aside, are you in good shape?

Hell no, but I have been working out for the past two years to try and get into good shape.

Jak

Not really gettin involved in this one - but ...

Anti Inflame - like Aulin etc. are not the same as taking regular painkillers. If I aggravate my back injury, I need anti inflames to reduce the inflammation before I can stretch and sort it out again.

Taking pain killers as a once off for random aches and pains from training is one thing - but it is a bad idea to rely on them in any regular way. As already said - the pain is telling you something.

JAK.

ps- My 1337 post.

tunney

Anti-inflamitories are part of the recommended treatment for ITB syndrome so thats a little different.

If you only jog and if you stretch properly then there is absolutely no reason why your thighs should get spasms of pain. Its not normal and not common. What it is I've no idea.