What do you do when feel an injury starting?

dna_leri

When you feel a slight knock, niggle or twinge, it's not yet an all out injury that stops you running but maybe it's a sign of a one starting.

The "correct" approach is probably to ease off (or stop) training, apply ice & compression (RICE - Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) and if that does not work go to a physio or doc.

I'm not looking for medical advice 'cos I know that's not allowed here, and I know everyone is different and the best person to ask for advice is a medical practitioner, just wondering what people actually do?

Me, I ignore it for a while hoping it will go away on its own, and when it doesn't then start to ease off hard training. I generally wait until it really hurts or stops me from running before I start RICE, only when that does not work I try a physio or doctor.

TFBubendorfer

I never stop running until it starts hurting properly. Maybe it's a stupid thing to do, but 90% of my niggles never turn into a real injury and disappear eventually.

If I took time off every time I feel some discomfort I'd miss a sizeable chunk of my training.

RacoonQueen

Pain usually disappears after 3 or 4 miles. Unless it's the shins...I've got a new dose of shin splints, not had them for a loooong time. Methinks it's my cumulus as I've never worn them before and have been wearing them quite a bit lately.

Supercell

I take a day or two off if needed. Had bad knee pains when I was starting back in to running after a long gap. Having to stop running for a couple of weeks to injury would kill me now. Much rather take two days off than two weeks or more if i got injured.
There is a fine line though between a niggle and an injury, I will run with a little pain, I guess the thing is , is the pain roughly the same every run or is it progressively getting worse?
If its progressive, like a few weeks ago when my shins were killing me every run and getting worse no matter what distance. Took three days off and then ran a couple of slow short runs. But they are fine now despite considerably upping the mileage so I reckon I did the right thing.

ClashCityRocker

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

I never stop running until it starts hurting properly. Maybe it's a stupid thing to do, but 90% of my niggles never turn into a real injury and disappear eventually.

If I took time off every time I feel some discomfort I'd miss a sizeable chunk of my training.

Same here. At the moment, I have various niggles in my left knee, shins and right hamstring yet going on past experience I'd be fairly certain they'll not turn into anything more serious. I'm in training for the Connemarathon so can't really affort to take time out anyway.

I suppose that's the key, you know your body better than anyone, and hopefully with experience you'll learn when it's necessary to ease off a bit and when it's ok to keep on going.

shels4ever

Usually keep running, but I think i'll change that now as i've been out for over 2 weeks because of it.

dna_leri

shels4ever wrote: »

Usually keep running, but I think i'll change that now as i've been out for over 2 weeks because of it.

Shels - with the benefit of hindsight, did you have warning signs that you ignored and would now treat differently?