Muscle Injury PreventionMuscle injury prevention is of high importance on a hiker's list. Without cooperating, fully functioning muscles, you ain't goin' nowhere! So let's take a peek at these contracting workhorses, named because they resemble the rounded bodies of mice under the skin during contractions ("mus" for "mouse"). Muscles are attached to bones by tendons. Bones are attached to each other by ligaments. And they are all wrapped up in a compartment by more soft tissue: fascia (think of it as strong, efficient, versatile packing material - the connective tissue of the body). Why is that important to a hiker? Because any of these -bone, muscle, soft tissue- can be injured or stressed during a hike. Ignoring an injury or a warning sign such as inflammation or pain is asking for big trouble. You can ignore it for a while, but would you ignore a fire in your house? Best to deal with it right away, before you lose the entire structure! Giving your body plenty of high quality protein, pure water, good fats, complex carbohydrates, and other nutrients will rebuild tissue and keep you hiking for decades. That's something you can make a point of doing on a daily basis. But there's more you can do to make your hiker's body strong and resilient, and I know you aren't going to want to hear it: take good care of your muscles by exercising daily and stretching. Ugh! Who has time? Who wants to walk when it's rainy or hot or snowy or windy? I know - I'm right with you, and the only solution is to visualize yourself on a hiking trail, feeling weak and tired and winded while your hiking companions are way ahead of you. That doesn't feel good, does it? And if you're a solo hiker, you have an even bigger commitment to stay strong and trail conditioned because you only have yourself to rely upon when the going gets tough (unexpected elevation loss followed by a big gain, severe weather conditions, heat extremes, an injury or trauma, any of a number of unpredictable trail events). I'm not going to preach, but hopefully I can persuade you to take your leg and thigh muscles seriously. Muscle injury prevention is a much better route than injury rehabilitation! Let me introduce you to them right now. Your lower leg between your knee and ankle is technically referred to as your leg (tibia and fibula bones), with your thigh (femur bone) being - well, you know where it is! Leg muscles are divided by fascia into compartments, named for where they are on the bones: facing front (anterior), on the side (lateral), or at the back of the leg (posterior). These muscles need to move the foot - think about this! Every single step you take along a hiking trail requires these muscles to work. At the end of every hike, I send a silent "thanks" to these hard working muscles, and I promise them a nice long stretch once I get my boots off. Leg muscles have great names: tibialis, peroneus, gastrocnemius, soleus, plantaris, popliteus. The strongest tendon in your body, called the calcaneal or Achilles tendon, anchors some of these muscles to the calcaneal bone of the ankle. In other words, it attaches the soft muscle fibers to the bony structure which is part of building the complex structure you walk on: your foot. When your muscles feel sore after a hike, it's because they were busy contracting and relaxing with each step you took. They need a bit of extra attention as they recover from their exertion: drink more water, eat lean meat/fish or quinoa or rice & beans as readily available protein sources to rebuild the muscle cells, and do some gentle stretches. It's a "good" sore, right? It reminds you of the great hike you were on! Shinsplints is the name given to pain located on the front of the leg, along the big leg bone (tibia) you can feel quite easily because there's not a lot of "meat" (muscle) on that part of the bone. Pain is a red flag, warning you that you've got to pay attention to the bone (stress fracture), the muscles (tendinitis), or the tissues which wrap around the bone (periostitis). Note that any word ending with "-itis" refers to inflammation, which could show up not only as pain, but as swelling, redness, heat, or loss of mobility. Short term inflammation is the body's natural healing cycle, but it can get overblown and cause unintended side effects, or it can get stuck in a chronic cycle that's more difficult to resolve. So this brings me to the need for daily activity. If you only hike on the week-ends, or in short hard bursts, you put a lot of stress on your legs and it can show up as shinsplints. Keeping your muscles strong will prevent this - and the only way to keep them strong is to USE them every day! The good news is that even a short 20 minute walk every other day will do the trick to prevent muscle injury. Now let's move up to your thigh muscles. These are impressive for their size and power. They have the responsibility for moving your heavy thigh bone (femur) and for moving the knee. Again, visualize yourself striding up the trail - these muscles are working constantly to move you along. They have great names, too, and are arranged in compartments according to how close or far away from the surface of the thigh they are: vastus lateralis, biceps femoris, adductor brevis for example. You might have experienced a "pulled" muscle in your thigh. This unhappy event in your hamstrings (hamstring strain) leads to pain, and may be accompanied by swelling and a pool of blood forming in the tissues (hematoma) if the tendons are pulled off their bony anchor. Why did it happen? Lack of stretching and a strength imbalance between these muscles on the back of the thigh, and the quads (quadriceps) on the front of the thigh. Muscle injury prevention strategies? Stretching, working out to gain strength in your quads and hamstrings, and avoidance of quick starts & stops when your muscles aren't fully warmed up. So let's sum it up: regular movement to keep your legs and thighs strong and conditioned, regular stretching to avoid trouble on the trail, good nutrition to give your body the building blocks it needs to repair damage, and a good attitude about investing time in yourself. Oh, and one more thing: self massage to work out the inevitable sore spots. And you have my permission to treat yourself to Swedish or deep tissue massage every month! If you are committed to beginning (or enhancing) a weekly routine to strengthen your hiking abilities, drop me a line and ask any questions you might have. I'd be happy to help in brainstorming some muscle injury prevention strategies for you. Repeat after me: It's better to be strong than sore! |