Focus of a Running Schedule and Risk of Running Injuries

Northern Orthopaedic Division, Denmark

Status: Completed

Conditions: Running Related Injuries

Treatments: Behavioral: An 8 week preconditioning period; Behavioral: 16 week training period

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02349373

N-20140069

Details and patient eligibility

About

Running is a natural part of human locomotion and humans have been running for million of years. In modern society, running has become a popular way of exercise and is undertaken by many people worldwide, possibly because it provides a cheap and easily accessible form of exercise, and the positive effects of running on health and fitness are well known. Unfortunately, running is also associated with a high risk of injury.

The purpose of this project is to investigate how a running schedule which focuses either on running distance or running speed influence the overall risk of injury and the types of injury sustained in recreational runners.

Full description

Trails directed at investigating differences in injury risk in relation to the focus of the running schedule have been conducted without any firm conclusions. People engaged in recreational running or choosing running as a new and active lifestyle needs guidance on which running schedules minimize the injury risk, aiding their chance of an active lifestyle and possibly reversing the increase in people developing a lifestyle disease. To develop running schedules minimizing the risk of injury, an understanding of the mechanisms that the different training variables impose on the human body is necessary. The existing literature on running intensity and the development of injuries show conflicting result. More studies are necessary to ascertain if there is a relationship between the intensity of running. In such studies, it is important to include other training variables in the analysis and to quantify running exposure using an objective method of measuring the relative intensity and absolute volume.

Enrollment: 839 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• on average 1-3 weekly running sessions the past 6 months
• owns a pair of running shoes
• internet access and mail address
• owns a Garmin GPS watch (pulse rate watch) or an IPhone/Android phone

Exclusion criteria

• previous injury in lower extremity within the past 6 months
• unable to follow the running regime in 6 consecutive months
• do not want to use GPS (Global Positioning System) watch or Android/Smart phone to register training
• unable to read or understand Danish
• deprecated by personal GP (General Practitioner) to run due to former surgery or physical disease
• mental condition that does not allow participation (e.g. externalizing behaviors, dementia)
• pregnancy
• participants with blood pressure above normal according to WHO guidelines will need to consult own GP (General Practitioner) for approval

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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839 participants in 2 patient groups

Preconditioning running

Active Comparator group

Description:

An 8 week preconditioning period. The variables of interest are running distance and running intensity: running speed \>80% VO2max (maximal oxygen uptake).

Treatment:

Behavioral: An 8 week preconditioning period

Follow-up period

Active Comparator group

Description:

The Volume group progress 23% in total weekly running distance in the last adaptation week in the prior 4 week block. The Intensity group progress 23% in weekly distance of running above 80% VO2 max (maximal oxygen uptake), based on the distance of running above 80% VO2max in the last adaptation week in the prior 4 week block.

Treatment:

Behavioral: 16 week training period