With running season upon us, it's important to approach training with caution to avoid injuries and burnout. And as we get excited about warmer weather, it’s easy to try to ramp up our training too quickly. Maybe we haven’t been as active over the winter, and our muscles and tendons and ligaments have not caught up with our enthusiasm for running, so our heart says run, run, run… and our body is saying, woah… wait a minute. Let me catch up. 

That's why I’m talking with Dr. Eoin Everard, a chartered physiotherapist with a PhD in Biomechanics.  He’ll share his expertise on injury prevention and recovery strategies.

As an international runner himself, Dr. Everard understands the importance of mobility, stability, and motor control exercises in improving running technique and preventing injuries. He's also the founder of the BackAware Belt, an innovative piece of equipment that provides users with instant feedback on their back positions....

I know... thinking about ankle mobility isn't exciting. You'd rather get out there and run! I get it. But... you need to have healthy feet, ankles and calves if you are going to run to your potential. So many little problems that become big problems start with the feet.

Take a look at the foot in the image above. See that angle? If the foot can't achieve at least a 30 degree angle as it is loading, it is going to compensate in some way that usually creates a braking force (which slows you down). The inability to move the foot through the range of motion without compensating by rolling the foot to one side (for example) means that the runner will execute this flawed motion repeatedly over the course of their training run. And every motion from the minute the foot touches the ground affects something further up the kinetic chain. 

Why do we care?

1) If you want to get faster, a good place to start is with the feet.

2) To help prevent injury. My goal as a coach and with...