Stress Fractures: What Little You Can Do to Prevent Them

Looking for the good news in this L.A. Times story on stress fractures is a stressful exercise. The bad news is easily found: stress fractures--tiny breaks in bones, usually in feet or legs--are common injuries for runners and other athletes whose training involves repeated pounding. Being in great shape doesn't necessarily protect one from stress fractures: Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong suffered through a stress fracture when he ran the New York Marathon for the first time after retiring from cycling competition. The Times' cites a study of 167 runners from the UCLA track team. Over five years, 37 of the runners suffered more than 60 stress fractures.
What can you do to prevent them? Weight training helps to strengthen bones. So does good nutrition (calcium), and running on softer surfaces is a good way to go.
Read more in the L.A. Times.