If you’ve ever had that nagging pain during or after your runs, or if you find yourself having to change how you’re running, this guide is for you. For many of our patients that are passionate runners, it can be hard to know when to push through and when an injury might be serious. In this blog, we’ll go over the most common injuries we see, and how to overcome them. First, let’s start with how they develop.
How do running injuries develop?
Running injuries are almost always a result of overloading a tissue. Whether it’s an increase in training volume, skipping too many rest days, or a muscular imbalance, when it comes down to it, one area is getting over stressed. With repetitive high impact activities like running, the body produces and has to absorb huge amounts of force over long periods of time. Without enough time to repair your body, or without training your body’s ability to deal with these forces properly, injury happens.
Our runners will often say they have:
- Increased mileage in the past couple of weeks
- Changed shoes
- Changed from soft trail to hard pavement or other surfaces
- Started a new activity/sport on the side
What kinds of running injuries can develop?
Generally, we see a lot of the same issues with runners. These are obviously structures that have to handle he most pressure with running. While not restricted to these, we see most commonly:
- Runner’s knee (aka PFPS or patellofemoral pain syndrome)
- Shin splints (aka MTSS or medial tibial stress syndrome)
- Achilles tendinopathy
Let’s go through a quick summary of each and what Physiotherapy rehab might look like with each one.
Runner’s knee
This feels like a dull aching pain around or beneath your kneecap. Normally, it will feel worse when going downhill or down stairs. It develops when there is an imbalance of muscles at the hip/thigh, causing an uneven pull at the knee cap. Normally our knee cap slides up and down very smoothly in the groove, but with an altered line of pull causes increased friction and irritation. Oftentimes, people with this problem have a gait pattern with the knees or feet falling in.
Your Physiotherapist will help you determine where the root cause is arising, whether it’s your run pattern, lack of foot or hip stability and control, or something else. They will give you specific strengthening exercises and help you correct your running form if needed.
Shin splints and stress fractures
This feels like a throbbing aching pain along the inner edge of your shin bone. Most people say they feel it when they start their run, feel better as they continue, then worse afterwards or even the next day. This condition is a continuum that starts as a more minor soft tissue injury and can progress to a stress fracture if untreated.
Shin splints management will depend on where in that continuum you currently fall. Your physiotherapist will perform some tests with you to determine whether you need to stop running for a time (if a stress fracture is present), or if it’s just soft tissue irritation. They will give you advice on how to modify your runs or how long you have to stay away for, and give you strengthening exercises in the meantime. Additionally, they will create a graded back to run plan to ensure that you can return safely with minimal complications. In the meantime, you could do some cross changing like cycling or walking as long as there is no pain.
Achilles tendinopathy
One of the strongest tendons in the body, our Achilles bears the brunt any kind of jumping impact. This feels like a pain in the heel, anywhere from the bone to a few inches above it. People will complain of a warm up pain, especially worse for the first couple of steps after running, or pain whenever they land on it.
Treatment will involve a full assessment on the lower body to determine if it being brought on by a different issue in the body. Otherwise, modification of your current run habits and tendon retraining involving heavy slow resistance is the gold standard. Your physiotherapist will guide you on the proper place to start to not irritate the tendon, and help you create a safe running plan. This might look like altered mileage, more rest, walk:run intervals and more.
When do I need to see a Physiotherapist?
A little bit of muscles soreness after a workout is normal, but a pain that lasts is not. Don’t let your issues build up into a bigger one. Pain is your body’s way of alerting you to something wrong, don’t ignore it! Even if it is a more minor injury, you can recover faster with a professional’s eyes on it. Physiotherapists are experts with movement and the human body. Not only will they help you address the current issue, but give you tips and advice to prevent future injuries as well.
Running injuries are frustrating, if you’ve had an issue for a long time it is still never too late! Look for PhysioNow today. We have 10 locations across the West GTA including Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga, and Etobicoke ready to help you. Book with PhysioNow today for your first assessment and treatment for a running injury, sport injury, or pain.
