Why running has so many associated injuries and how to avoid them.

Running is a great way to improve your endurance and stay fit. But it also has a highly repetitive motion pattern which is highly impacting in your joins. Specially in your knees and spine joints.

Exclusively performing running workouts ignores a critical aspect of fitness and health: lower-body strength training and ROM (Range Of Motion - Flexibility)

Running at a moderate pace for a long duration increases your aerobic endurance. Your muscles will more efficiently use oxygen. However, you will not get stronger. Take a look at the the world's best runners; they're small and thin.

Weak muscles won't be able to properly stabilise your joints and absorb the repetitive stress from impacting the ground, which may increase your risk of an overuse injury or a pulled muscle while performing a highly repetitive motion patter such running.

Whether you're a competitive runner or someone who runs to stay fit, to prevent injury and stay healthy, you need to incorporate lower-body strength and ROM training into your regular routine

I recommend performing a lower-body workout once or twice per week on days when you don't plan to run and stretch ideally daily or minimum 3 times weekly.

Below are a few exercises that will strengthen your lower body—particularly your hamstrings and glutes—in ways that are kind to your joints so you can stay healthy when jogging miles:

• Rumanian Dead Lift. Sets/Reps: 3-5x6-10

• Swissball Hamstrings Roll. Sets/Reps: 3x8-15

• Sled or Tire Pull. Sets/Meters: 3x8-153x5to20

• Bench Hip Extensions. Sets/Reps: 3x8-15

• Slow Eccentric Phace Step Up. Sets/Reps: 3x8-12 each