5 Things Your Sports Chiropractor Wishes You Would Stop Doing

RELATED: When Should You See a Sports Chiropractor?

DONT Buy Shoes For Looks

While studies go back and forth on whether or not specific types of running shoes lead to injury, it’s still a good idea to opt for a proper fit over a pair of kicks that look cool or that you got for cheap. Ian Nurse, D.C., founder of Wellness in Motion Boston and a sub-2:30 marathoner, believes that many running injuries can start from not having the right shoes on your feet.

The nurse recommends going to a run specialty store and having someone watch your gait outside or on the treadmill. This will allow someone at the store to find a range of shoes that might work best for your specific running/walking mechanics. (You can find a nearby running store by checking out our Store Finder.) From there, you can go by what feels the best when running.

RELATED: How to Buy the Right Running Shoes

The nurse said he also asked his patients if there had been a change in running shoes from one style to another. For example, switching to a zero-drop shoe from a normal shoe, without easing into them, may increase your risk of injury. Like a fitter at a running store, a sports chiropractor like a Nurse may even look at your running gait in the office to diagnose imbalances in your foot’s motion mechanics.

The whole biomechanics starts in your foot, Nurse said. We all have different foot strikes. If it hits the ground in a certain way, the shoe has to support that. If you are a forefoot striker, rearfoot striker, overpronator, or under pronator, all of those foot strikes can lend themselves to various running injuries.

DONT Do Static Stretching Before A Run

Holding a static stretch for longer than 10 seconds can take away from your explosive muscular power before a run, according to Derek Vinge, D.C. at Fit Chiropractic & Sports Therapy in Courtenay, British Columbia. One study even showed that stretching cold muscles before a tough 3K left individuals starting their runs slower and at a greater perceived effort. And when your muscles aren’t signaling properly, it can lead to small injuries turning into larger problems over time.

You are better off with a series of dynamic stretches like lunges and squats to get the blood flowing in the body. (This 2-minute warmup should do the trick.) The benefits will be noticeable if you add five to 10 minutes of dynamic stretching before hitting the roads or trails.

If you do some activation and dynamic warmups, you will be a stronger, faster runner. I also forget to do a busy stretch, and I think maybe it is a time thing where you tell yourself  I’ll do this later. I’ll deal with it later, Vinge said.

DONT Overdo It On Foam Rollers

Foam rolling and other ways to work out a knot or refresh your legs can be a good thing in moderation. But less sometimes is more, according to Nurses.

I see a lot of people who tend to go overboard on that, Nurse said. They do so much foam rolling on their IT band and quads and are even more in pain. It’s more like a finesse, where you are trying to get blood flow into the area, but you aren’t trying to beat up the room so badly that you are causing more damage.

RELATED: 14 Foam Rollers, Balls, and Sticks to Work Knots Out

Stop if you’re working out on a foam roller and something continues to hurt or gets worse. Overdoing a problem spot may inflame it more. If you’re feeling relatively good, the Nurse suggests doing light work on the foam roller after a run to hit any problem areas for one to two minutes.

DONT Clam Up When You Get Into The Office

It would be best if you didn’t arrive at an office visit with pages and notes from WebMD. But you shouldn’t be silent and think a sports chiropractor has all the answers just by looking at you.

Going into an appointment, think about what has been consistently driving you crazy on a stiff run neck, a cranky left ankles that will allow a dog to focus on what’s bothering you.

Runners know their bodies a lot better than a lot of people, Nurse said. As we run, we are constantly checking in on different body parts, and people can recognize what is wrong, and they can tell if their gait is altered and what is hanging them up. The information I get from my patients helps me a lot.

DONT Forget To See Someone If You Need It & Listen To Your Sports Chiropractor

With training goals and miles to complete, runners often dont admit when there is something wrong. It’s almost a badge of honor to stay off the table for long periods.

But Vinge thinks there’s more to what he does than fixing injuries. Once an underlying issue is taken care of, you can teach your body to perform at a higher level than you thought was possible.

After they start to get better, then we can work on other issues to get some more performance out of them, said Vinge. If you’ve never been looked at, you have no idea what’s going wrong.