Got an email from a woman (we’ll call her Jane) who just ran the Chicago marathon and ended up with a hip stress fracture. Jane’s got a history of stress fractures and sought help from a nutritionist and fitness trainer. She was smart and started her marathon training 10 months in advance, to take it nice and slow. And still got a stress fracture. How frustrating!

Now Jane is wondering, “if there’s something wrong with my body mechanics” and if I should not be running. I love the sport and really hate to give it up, but boy, my family and friends are quite concerned of another fracture”.

Stress fractures are fairly common in runners, especially females. But blokes get them too. I’ve had several, the tibia (most common) and hip, which was so painful. I struggled to dress myself for a few weeks. Stabbing sharp pain, each time I lifted my leg to pull on my pants.

This week two new studies on stress fractures were released. Here’s my summary of the research and some fixes you might want to try:

The first study by University of Minnesota looked at 39 competitive women runners, ages 18 to 35. The researchers discovered that the difference between women who suffered stress fractures and those who didn’t was the size and strength of their calf muscles. Their advice is to build strength in your calf muscles to reduce your tibia stress fracture risk.

The fix - simple calf raises will do the trick. Rise up on your toes and lower back down. Do 10-15 on each leg every day (or every few days) and build up to 30. Stretch your calf, both lower and upper, and Achilles tendon after wards.

If you want more load, move your calf raises to a step. Place the ball of your foot on the step and let the heel hang over the edge. Rise up on your toe and then slowly lower the heel below the step. Again do 10-15 on each leg and build up to 30. Do these calf raises on your easy run days, not after a speed workout, hills or long run. Your calf muscles have already been taxed enough. Again, remember to follow with lots of stretching.

You may want to take it even further by holding dumbbells while doing your calf raises.

The second study was by the Iowa State University and centered on men but can be applied to women. The researchers found that runners may lower the risk of a tibia stress fracture by reducing their stride length by about 10%. It’s believed that by shortening your stride you’ll hit the ground with less force.

The fix - try to avoid over striding and shorten your steps. It might seem strange at first as we all have our own style. But just bringing some attention to your stride will help.

Of course having a good diet is important. We women need to get plenty of iron and calcium.

Here’s the full article from the New York Times.