Tips To Avoid Ankle Pain For An Overweight Runner

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It is imperative for everyone to be fit and healthy. If you are an overweight person and you have decided to run and want to avoid ankle pain, this is your first step towards good health. 

However, a word of caution – your extra weight might cause you irreparable injuries. Hence, you have to take additional preventive measures to avert injuries before you start running. 

To avoid injuries, you have to burn your calories or reduce your weight. Weight loss is like a challenge for an overweight person. 

It is not easy to lose weight, but you need immense patience and a strong will power to achieve your goal or target.

The first step is to make a firm decision to want to run. However, you should lose some of your weight or burn more calories to avoid injuries. 

Initially, you should choose some injury-free workouts in your exercise regime. Walk/Run program, along with other cardio activities at the gym, is advisable. 

Whatever is the mode of your exercise, whether it is running, walking, swimming, or working out at the gym, you should have a proper pair of running or workout shoes as well as appropriate workout clothes. 

Your proper workout shoes will go a long way in preventing you from injuries, and suitable workout clothes will make you comfortable while working out.

Before you start exercising, you should see that you have proper fitting socks and shoes, which will give your feet excellent support. You should wear appropriate exercise clothes – the fabric of which pulls moisture away from your body. 

Be hydrated before, during, and after your workout. Drink the proper amount of water as dehydration affects your muscles and joints.

Being an overweight person, you always tend to put extra stress or pressure on your bones, knees, and the ligaments of your ankles. Whether you jump, run, or walk, the ankle takes all the pressure on it. 

An ankle has numerous ligaments that connect bones to bones and tendons. Tendons attach muscle to bone. There are chances of twisting or spraining your ankle while running. 

An ankle sprain happens when you get a sudden stretch in the ankle while walking or running. That means one or more ligaments of the ankle get torn partially or wholly. 

Ankle sprain causes you immense pain. This pain might lead you to take a break from your exercises. So workout smartly, without taking any injury risks.

Prepare a proper running plan according to your current weight and fitness ability. You may run on flat and smooth surfaces to avoid spraining your ankles. 

Even when you are walking on level ground, the pressure which comes on your knees is one and half times more than your body weight. 

Likewise, the pressure increases on your knees and ankles according to the surface of the floor. For e.g., while inclining or when you are climbing up the stairs, the pressure is more than when you are climbing down the stairs. 

Initially, exercises can be alternated by walking and running. Set a small goal at the beginning, such as walking for ten minutes and running for two minutes. 

The timing can be gradually increased as per your ability. Walking and running will help you to burn your calories and reduce some of your weight as well as building up and increasing your stamina.

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Exercises to Avoid Ankle Pain

Enrolling yourself at a good Gymnasium will further help you in attaining your goal. When you are doing cardio, you should go for exercises on the stair climber machine, rowing machine, cross-training machine, and elliptical training. 

You should also add some other activities like cycling and swimming in your exercise chart. These exercises prevent you from injuries and help you to lose weight or burn your calories.

Stair climber

This exercise machine helps you to strengthen your lower body as well as to reduce your weight. You might think stair climber and real stairs has the same effect. But it is not so. Real stairs can hurt your joints depending on the surface, whereas the stair climber has no impact on your joints.

Rowing machine

This machine works on your whole body. It is also easier to use. Rowing machine helps you to reduce your weight, increase your stamina, tone your body, and build your muscles.

Cross trainer

This is the safest and easiest equipment in the cardio. Even Cross trainer works on your entire body but protects your joints or prevents you from injuries. While working out on Cross trainer, you don’t put much pressure on your joints. Cross trainer helps you to burn a number of calories.

Elliptical training

This exercise helps you to burn a lot of calories as well as it burns your body fat. Elliptical training works on your whole body – your upper body as well as your lower body. This exercise also helps you to increase your stamina. Elliptical training puts less pressure on your joints.

Cycling

Even this mode of exercise helps you burn more calories and to lose your weight depending on your weight and intensity. Cycling also helps you to build your muscles, strengthens your legs, and increases your bone density. Cycling does not stress your joints. There are cycles in the market for heavy people. According to your height and weight, you can select your bicycle.

Swimming

An hour of swimming can burn more calories than one hour of walking and other exercises, without injuring your bones and joints. Swimming works on your entire body. This exercise helps you to tone your muscles and also to build your strength. 

There are different ways of swimming, which work on different muscles of your body. Some studies say swimming helps one to recover from an injury. Swimming keeps you away from joint pain and stiffness and is the best way of exercising to burn your calories.

With your cardio exercise, you should do some weight training also. This helps you to strengthen your muscles. But you should not carry heavy weights because it puts a lot of stress on your joints. 

So only under your able trainer’s guidance, you can do some strength training to lose your weight.

 

Recovery Routine

This is very important after every workout or run. Recovery routine keeps you safe and injury-free. 

When you exercise, your muscles break down, inflammation increases, it stresses your body, and hence to recover or rebuild these muscles, recovery routine is essential. 

Your recovery routine includes stretching, resting, and eating nutritious foods.

Stretching

After a workout, your muscles become tired and stiff. So under your trainer’s guidance, you have to do stretching after every workout. 

Different stretches help you in different ways. With stretching, the stiffness and soreness of the muscles reduce, it makes your muscles strong and flexible. 

Stretching helps your muscles to recover and repair. This brings your body back to its natural state. It also prevents you from injuries.

Resting

This is very important in the recovery routine. Without proper rest, you cannot continue with your workout. Your muscles need to be repaired and healed. 

You should workout 4 to 5 days a week and keep two days as rest days for your body to recover from the micro-trauma, which has been caused to your muscles after the workout.

Nutritious Foods

Nutritious foods help to recover or rebuild muscle breakdown. It also helps in the restoration of glycogen in your muscles. This kind of food also helps you to lose fat and helps you to recover fast. 

You should eat the right amount of carbs, proteins, healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals, which allows your muscles to heal and grow stronger after a workout. 

You should have nutritious foods within one hour of your workout.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates play an equally important role in muscle recovery. Glycogen is used as fuel during workouts, and carbohydrates help you to restore and replenish the same. 

Carbohydrates are found in foods such as fruits, berries, apples, bananas, oatmeal, quinoa, rice cakes, sweet potato, whole grain bread, and cereals.

Proteins

This helps you to repair and rebuild your muscles. Consumption of protein is good for bones. High consumption of protein helps you to burn more calories. 

It also helps you to maintain your weight loss. Protein-based foods provide amino acids to muscles after a workout. Protein is found in foods such as milk, eggs, greek yogurt, chicken, salmon or tuna, protein shake, and tofu.

Healthy Fats

Little fat in your diet is essential. You should have monounsaturated fat (healthy fat) food, which helps in the growth of cells and gives your body energy. 

Healthy fat foods also help you to reduce weight and decrease inflammation. Monounsaturated fat is found in foods such as avocado, flax seeds, nuts, etc.

Avocado

This contains a good amount of healthy monounsaturated fat as well as nearly around 20 vitamins, such as C, E, K, B6, minerals, and potassium. Vitamin K gives you healthy bones.

Flax seeds

This contains high-quality protein in it. Flax seeds are filled with nutrients. It has a good amount of vitamins, fiber, and minerals. Flaxseeds also help you to control your weight.

Nuts

They are a good source of monounsaturated fats. It also contains essential vitamins and minerals.

The above are a few tips for an overweight runner to avoid ankle injury. Whatever your goals, remember Health is Wealth. So stay fit, strong and healthy.

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