I want to share a tip to help you scale up your running and stay mostly injury-free. “I know, I must stretch” is what most people may think. And yes, that is true, but I’ve found that stretching isn’t always enough.

My experience and research agree that regular SMR (self-myofascial release) is needed to help prevent and treat knee, ankle, and foot pain. This includes adding foam rolling or using massage balls to your routine. SMR is widely used to loosen tight muscles and improve flexibility. I’ve known this to a limited extent for years, ever since I published a post about it eight years ago. Ten years ago, I discovered that a tennis ball is a good alternative to a foam roller (see this post).

Interestingly, the place you need to work on often isn’t where you feel the pain. If the pain is in your foot, the area you need to treat is often your lower leg — either your shins or your calves. If the pain is in your knee, you often need to press your quads, hips, or glutes. In fact, DO NOT try to do this on your feet or your knees! You may cause more harm, and it won’t help.

I learned a technique from a physiotherapist that you can even do with your fingers. Find where the muscle is sore and press down on it with your thumbs, a massage ball, or a tennis ball. Hold it there for a minute, or until you feel the pain release. Then move to an adjacent area, and if you feel pain there too, repeat the process. It’s painful, but it’s “good pain.” Very often, you’ll feel the pain in your foot also when you press hard on your shin muscle. When that happens, I know I’ve found the right spot.

I know my body well enough now that when I get a pain on top of my foot, I immediately know which shin muscle is most likely causing it. Pain on the side of my foot often indicates a muscle in my calf, probably more to the side. For knee pain, I immediately go to my quads and sometimes to the calf muscles right below the knee.

Incidentally, this also works for finger pain due to repetitive strain from typing or clicking the mouse. Pressing a certain muscle in my forearm does wonders to provide relief and often makes the pain in any of my fingers disappear.

There are many posts and videos on how to use a foam roller, so suffice it to say that it does exactly the same thing. The key is keeping the roller where you discover those hidden muscle pains.

Since this technique restores flexibility in muscles, it not only helps prevent injuries but can also make you a bit faster. Perhaps that will encourage you to give it a try!

How wonderfully God has made us! We are uniquely manufactured to be fully self-healing. Medicine, massage, whatever, is only effective as it supports the mechanisms God created for us to heal. This is particularly significant for me as a Bible-believing Christian.

When you run and the pain gets worse even after applying these techniques, seek medical care. Medical professionals have a role to play in all of this, and I have visited many professionals over the years.

We need to do whatever we can to enable us to continue running or doing our chosen sport, because being fit plays a huge role in preventing the other bigger, more threatening diseases that can kill us. (even if it can only kill the body)

Keep running!

Stephan