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Comment by dominotw | Hacker News Reader

I recently developed 'IT band Syndrome' which made me say goodbye to boring/injury prone running and switch to swimming. Best decision ever. Fuck running.

I don't know of single runner who hasn't suffered some kind of injury. Again fuck running.

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It's ironic that it is IT band syndrome that caused this reaction, since that's by far the easiest running-related "injury" to solve.

There is literally one magic-bullet stretch that will solve it completely - allowing you to go from excruciating "am I destroying my knee?" pain to pain-free in a few days or a week.

Just a note: even if you don't ever return to running, that tightness in your hips and your IT is not getting better - you will need to address that at some point because it will rear its head again. Foam rollers, big rubber bands that you walk sideways in, and sideways leg raises/circles, if you're curious.

I'm in the exact same situation as parent. Except i skipped to biking. It seems to me that Foam rollers ( or in my case just stretching on a tennis ball) are good for relieving the pain a bit after you've stopped running. But what do you suggest to stop having the pain in the first place ?

To avoid pain run less distance at a slower pace. People generally build up way too fast. I had plenty of problems in my late 40's when I tried to run and went at it like when I was a kid. But when I slowed down and built distance up very slowly I had no problems. Now I run marathons and have averaged about 45 miles/week for 2014.

Regarding form, I would say it's not something you need to focus on. Do try to run as straight up as you can, like you're a marionette suspended from strings with your legs moving beneath you (probably same thing said another way as "pretend you're running on thin ice"). But other than that your body will mostly sort form issues out unconsciously as you very slowly ramp up running mileage.

The magic stretch is the one where you lie, on your side, on the edge of a bed.

Then, you drape the affected leg (the leg that is on top, not the leg you're lying on) behind you, such that your foot ends up below the level of the bed.

You're basically stretching your hip farther than you could stretch it normally, since you can drape it backwards into empty space.

Play with it a bit, with different angles, etc. This is the stretch that can have you go from debilitating pain (I couldn't even walk properly) to completely asymptomatic.

This is a good stretch for everyone, since even if you don't have "IT band issues", most people have much tighter hip joints than they think, and it affects the health of your knees and back.

I've actually got an alternative magic stretch that can be done standing (so you can do it in the middle of a run). It involves crossing your legs and reaching over to the side.

Image here: http://www.runnersworld.com/sites/default/files/rt/images/20...

In my experience, stretches and foam roller are both ways to alleviate the discomfort, but they don't fix the underlying problem, which is related to running form and specific muscle weaknesses. When the gluteus medius is weak, or when the lower leg is rotated inwards slightly by the arch flattening, the IT band ends up under excessive tension, trying to keep everything in line. The long-term fix for me was to strengthen my feet to reduce pronation, to do lots of deep squats, and to focus on "firing" the glutes while running.

If you don't like to run, then just don't do it. No one is asking you for a justification, so don't feel obligated to offer one.

That said, after forty years of competitive running at various levels, I can recall one debilitating injury, a stress fracture. Yeah, let's blame that on running and not being a dumbass sophomore in high school who thought 95 miles/week was a ticket to success.

But do what suits you as long as it gets you off yor ass.

Wow, that's a crazy figure (to me anyway). Have you ever written up your experiences anywhere?

It is a crazy figure for high school kids at least (though far from unheard of). But that was back in the day when our heroes ran ridiculous mileage, too. Problem for me was that my heroes were training for 10K meters or more at an international level, not just hoping to make the state meet in the 2 mile. I wasn't pushed by a coach to do so (my coach probably would have had a cow had he known), it was mid-winter and what the hell else am I going to do in Indiana in December? For the remainder of high school I kept it to 70/week, and much less when competition started.

If you have the time (and that's probably the biggest limiter), 95 miles/week isn't all that uncommon, especially among top runners. Whether one starts to run into massively diminishing returns is another discussion. Even now in my advancing middle age, I'll be trying to crank it up to a peak of 80 miles/week in preparation for a marathon in May (one last shot at a time goal before I get too old). Lots of early mornings and my wife won't see me on Sundays until noon, but doable for a person with a job. But we'll see if my old legs can still handle that, and adjust accordingly if necessary. And I don't plan to win anything; if I have a really good day maybe I can walk away with a free pair of socks.

As for write-ups, meh, there are plenty with more interesting stories than mine (and to directly answer your question: no, never written anything worth reading). I've always been one of those "just shy of greatness" runners. Never quite good enough to qualify for Olympic Trials, pack fill at cross-country nationals, that kind of thing. As I often say, there are two people on the planet that care about my results: my wife and my mother, and I'm not 100% sure about my mother. So I've just never written much down.

Ah, well thanks for sharing here anyway and good luck in May.

I used to swim a lot until I started developing ear and nose infections from the wet environment. Now, if I swim more than once a week I get a blocked sinus. This happens more with chlorinated swimming pools, but I think O3 treated ones are not great for your health either.

Running on the other hand doesn't seem to give me trouble.

We inherited quite a few swimmers at a club sport in college, and most of them had had various kinds of shoulder issues. Not to mention the various ear, nose, and skin issues from the chlorinated water.

You can get hurt with any sport if you get unlucky on the genetic draw, or overtrain.

I spent years running in my late teens and early 20s and had no running-related lasting injuries - and I have flat feet.

While swimming is lower stress on the musculature and does a more full-body workout, I know several folks who simply got sick and couldn't continue daily regimens. Once they got better it difficult for them to continue. Surely proper preparation (swim caps/goggles) could have helped.

Basketball is crazy fun but potential for injury is much higher - I stopped due to injuries.

tl;dr - all activities require proper preparation.

Every sport in the world is a direct source of injuries if you combine too important a workload and bad form. Your injuries have nothing to do with running itself, an activity that has been central to the human species' way of life for millions of years and that the human body is naturally designed for.

>way of life for millions of years and that the human body is naturally designed for.

yea we don't live that way of life anymore. We are talking about running for fitness after sitting in front of a computer for the rest of the day.

If it is so natural why do we need to read books and blogs about form? Are you suggesting that prehistoric people went through "running form bootcamps" before making it their "way of life" ?

What I meant is that the human species is naturally gifted for endurance running. We're not naturally gifted for underwater activities, we're not really designed for flying, but running at a moderate speed for long periods of time is something that we're naturally good at (and specific parts of our bodies are specifically designed in a way that helps with that activity).

The reason why we need to read books and get interested in the theory is especially because we're culturally evolved in a way that doesn't require for us to run around all day long. The skills associated with running are now almost obsolete when they were absolutely crucial back in the days of hunting and foraging for food. As a result, we've kind of lost touch with the minute details of what makes for efficient running, just like I'm not sure a lot of people would know how to make a fire in the wild anymore, those activities are a bonus now, not a necessity.

You don't really see animals running for hours in the wild. They sprint to hunt or survive, then they walk.

Humans tended to hunt animals to exhaustion. The sprinting predators you're talking about stalk in close then sprint to take down their prey; groups of hunter-gatherer humans have instead tended to chase animals a long distance at moderate speed until the animals drop from exhaustion. It makes it easier to take them down, when you consider that humans are not really going to be jumping on the back of a buffalo and biting its neck to kill it.

So you don't tend to see animals running for hours because that's a human speciality (among predators), and it's part of why we've been so successful as a species, despite our physical weakness compared to other predators.

Those were particular humans and the method worked in hot weather. Wolves hunt the same way, wound the animal then exhaust it. I don't think humans used this approach in Europe.

And the reason people need technique bootcamp is they're not physically active anymore. They have muscular imbalances that need direct attention to correct.

While you'll develop better muscles and endurance by switching to swimming, you will not get the helpful stress on your bones without some form of other exercise like biking.

Have you considered the idea that you may have been injuring yourself due to poor technique?

Humans have been running long distances for a long damn time.

Running really is horrible. Let's not forget marathons commemorate a guy who ran until he died. I don't quite understand the pleasure people get from it!

Having said that I run 2km daily. No more, no less, 'tis a bitter pill but with heart disease in my family I consider it worthwhile insurance.

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