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Fitness For your Info Performance Recommendations Tips

Are Your Running Shoes Overdue For A Change?

By Tim Irvine, MSc

You would think that after five marathons and thousands of kilometers of running, I’d know a bit better than to let my shoes get to the point where they are doing more harm than good. That’s just not the case.

I was recently reminded of this when I put on a new pair of Adidas Adi-Boosts. My current pair of ON (SWISS running shoe brand) shoes is ‘dead.’ That’s the best way I can describe it. There is just no comfort left, nor is there the support I had when I first put them on. I loved them when I tried them in the store and went for those first few comfy runs.

It’s the middle of July, and for most of us who run, it’s also the middle of the running season. A perfect time to reassess our shoe situation.

Running shoes are a bit like your friend’s kid that you haven’t seen for years. When you pay attention to them, you can’t believe how much they’ve changed and how much time has gone by, just like me and my running shoes. With that in mind, do you know how old your shoes are?

Our very own Victoria Lavinskas, the Running Physio, recommends changing your runners “…when the architecture of the shoe changes, and there is apparent wear and tear, or when the cushioning doesn’t bounce back anymore.” One of these recommendations is visual, and the other is by feel.

In the picture below, you will see my ‘old’ ON shoes. They don’t look that bad, and therein lies the problem. When they are stacked up against a brand new pair of any brand, they do look tired. For me, the feel is always the big tell. As soon as I put the Adidas on, I knew instantly that the ONs had literally worn out their welcome.

Jessie Nusselder, a trainer at Totum and a sub 5-minute 1500m runner, has additional information to factor in:

“Running shoes tend to have a ‘lifespan’ depending on the material they’re made of. The average shoe will last approx. 500km, and shoes made of lighter material like carbon will last approx. 150-200km. So, for the long-distance runner putting in about 75km of mileage per week, they should be changing their shoes every 6 months or so. While training in varsity, our mileage could be between 80-100km per week, which included more intense workouts, so we were recommended to get new running shoes every 4 months.”

The time is now to assess your footwear. Here are four steps to consider:

  1. Do they look old and worn?
  2. Does the tread on the sole of the shoe look worn, and is the heel misshapen?
  3. Are they more than four months old, and have you put on 20km or more weekly?
  4. Lastly, put them on and think about whether they feel ‘springy’ or ‘cushy.’ Yes, those are technical terms. 🙂

Answering the above questions will help guide your decision on whether to buy new shoes or continue with the current ones. If you are not sure, you likely need a switch.

When you do buy new shoes, put a reminder in your calendar four months from when you first put them on. This will be a good guide to remind you to check whether your shoes could use a replacement. If you haven’t run much, push your reminder out two more months. If you’ve been wearing them for day-to-day activities, that will still create wear and tear. Not as fast, but it still happens. Additionally, if you happen to be passing by a shoe store, just try a new pair on and see how they feel.

The point is, almost all of us wait too long, and if you are putting mileage on those shoes when they no longer provide support, you could be setting yourself up for an overuse injury.

Happy running in those comfy new shoes.

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Fitness Performance Tips Uncategorized

Lessons To Avoid Back And Shoulder Pain

By Tim Irvine

I have a problem. It’s not exactly world shattering, but it will allow you to learn from my mistakes.

While I’ve progressed my thinking in many areas, I seem to be stuck with a mindset from my 20’s as it relates to my physical capabilities. Back when I could sprint, jump, throw, catch, hit, etc., all at full speed, at any moment.

Time has moved on and, apparently, so have my capabilities. There have been a series of injures, none particularly catastrophic, but all avoidable.

Like the parallel bars in a park in Quebec last winter. Shoulder tear.

Or my no warmup hockey game the winter before. Searing back pain.

And most recently, an early morning, post-run deadlifting session. A different kind of back pain.

It seems ridiculous given my education, experience and profession, but taking my own advice has never been my strong suit.

Here is what you can learn from my ridiculous mistakes.

  1. Sitting can really mess you up.

I’ve gone from a day filled with workouts, sports, and more than 15,000 steps, to sitting 6-8 hours daily. Weekends are a break from it, but the overwhelming repetition of my butt on a chair wins in a landslide. What does this look like in real terms?

  • Slightly rounded forward shoulders put the shoulder joint in a poor functional position. When you are doing some parallel bar work after a decade away from it, this new shoulder position is a disaster. Ouch!
  • Short hamstrings, short hip flexors, weak abs. When you start moving fast, and I use ‘fast’ loosely these days, with major structures like these tugging on your pelvis and spine with reduced abdominal support, bad things happen. Painful things happen.

Solution: Don’t sit so much (Nobel prize, here I come). If you do need to sit, change position or move every 30 minutes. No joke. EVERY 30 minutes.

  1. Warmups are actually good for you.

Before a track meet, my daughter needs to be there over 90 minutes ahead of her event so she can warm up properly. She’s 16. If a 16 year old trained athlete needs an hour +, why do I think it makes any sense to show up, forgoe the warmup, and just giver’ in my hockey game? Spoiler alert, there is no reasonable answer for this other than something including the word stupid. The pressures of time usually means we cut the warmup short, or remove it completely. Take it from me, this is a bad idea.

  • No warmup means muscles are not prepared for demands placed on them, dramatically increasing the risk of a strain – aka a tear.
  • No warmup means the neuromuscular system is not ‘primed’ to protect joints and their supporting structures resulting in an increased risk of ligament or tendon injury.
  • If you really want to increase your injury risk, workout first thing in the morning without a warmup.

Solution: Always, always, always warm up. The more intense your activity, the longer and more specific the warmup needs to be.

  1. Know where you are at and do what fits.

If there is one lesson that is most important for me, and many others, it’s this one. If I just put my M.Sc. to work for myself, I would program and train myself much differently, and the first two lessons above would be mute. I’d sit way less and warmup really well. Everything would be much less risky as it relates to injuries.

Solution: Forget about what was and focus on what is. Where are you at today and what is appropriate to be doing? It doesn’t mean the pursuit of performance is dead, the process just needs to be thoughtful and match one’s current abilities.

Bonus considerations.

Tissue pliability changes with age, but more so with use. Keeping your muscles pliable, flexible, supple goes a long way to keeping your movements ‘young’. If you are 30 and have been sitting for your job the last five years, your tissues have lost pliability. Realize this and remember this is how Tom Brady played until he was 45.

When you do sustain an injury, appropriate activity really helps with recovery. Gone are the days when rest was the go to way to recover from any kind if tissue injury, including surgeries. My most recent back injury is a perfect example. I hurt it in the morning but had a full day ahead of me and I had to plow through. Appropriately. I took my own advice for once and moved carefully all day with a resulting 30-40% decrease in my pain before heading to bed. Had I laid on the couch all day, I would not have had the same improvement.

The above is written with tongue in cheek, however, the messages are no less important. There are many things I do right, but a lack of time usually leads me to make decisions I know are not ideal, but I think I’ll be able to get away with it. Sometimes I do, but when I don’t, the result is a real pain.

Take my advice and be smart with your decisions