Podium Talk

Almost everyone involved in physical exercise has experienced muscle cramps at some point in time. It can be explained as a painful and involuntary muscle contraction that locks the joint in place. They occur mostly in longer muscles that span two or more joints. Once experienced, athletes may continue to cramp unless adequate rest is provided. There are many theories as to how muscle cramps occur and what can be the possible solutions to relieving them. They are sometimes inaccurately termed as heat cramps. Exercise-associated muscle cramps do not have a relation with body temperature and do not recover with an external cooling modality, like an ice pack. If the theories of muscle cramps do not interest you, skip to the last part where you can learn how to deal with muscle cramps. One of the oldest theories is based on dehydration and electrolyte imbalance that occurs during exercise. It states that sweating alters the chemical balance of the fluids present in the body, which affects...

When we observe runners, there are just so many variations in running technique and patterns. The length of the stride, body lean, amount of bending at each joint, the first point of foot contact and the arm swing are just a few of the places where we can notice the differences. Heel striking is one of the most criticised biomechanical variations in running. It is said that a heel to toe pattern impedes the forward motion of the runner and wastes more energy than landing on the forefoot. The first thing to get out of the way is that it’s not necessary that everyone who lands on their heel places it ahead of the body and that everyone who lands on the forefoot does so right under the body, which makes it invalid to connect the two factors. Forefoot Strike Technically there are three types of foot strike patterns: forefoot, rearfoot, and midfoot strike. The mechanics of the midfoot strike have more common features to the rearfoot strike and hence both of them will be considered under the...

Urbanisation comes at a cost. With the development of infrastructure, we have lost many dirt roads and trails. We humans have been running since the beginning of our evolution, but the surfaces on which we run have drastically changed in a short span of time. Dirt trails, natural gravel and grass have been replaced with concrete and tarmac. It is needless to say that we still have access to dedicated mud and (synthetic) tracks. You might also find a hilly trail near your house. What is undeniable is the fact that it’s not as easy as it was. We will talk about treadmill running in another article. Let’s focus on grass, synthetic track and concrete for now. Another noteworthy point is that the injury risk depends on various other factors like the running technique, type and intensity of running, the distance covered per week, the stride length and frequency, type and material of shoes, landing patterns, amongst others. So for now, we will be strictly looking at the surfaces to see which ...