Healthy Runner's Evaluation

Healthy Runner’s Evaluation

Blake Preece, PT

Fit For Life Physical Therapy

You have completed your goal race.  Congratulations!  Now what?  Before planning your next event, give yourself plenty of time to get back into training.  Once ready, start slowly and build gradually.  This period, often coined the “offseason,” is a great time to work on building your muscular strength to reduce risk of injury.  A recent systematic review of running-related musculoskeletal injuries found that the following injuries were most prevalent in runners:

Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (Runner’s Knee)
Description:  The most common overuse injury in runners.  Pain around or behind the kneecap that is often worsened by running downhill, stairs, or after prolonged sitting.

Common Causes:  Overuse, hip and knee muscle imbalance, improper footwear affecting how your foot hits the ground can contribute.

Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome (Shin Splints)
Description:  Pain along the front or inside edge of the shin.

Common Causes: Overuse or jumps in training too quickly, poor running mechanics, poor calf flexibility, or inadequate footwear.

Achilles Tendinopathy
Description:  Pain and stiffness along the back of your ankle (Achilles tendon), often after running or in the morning.

Common Causes: Poor calf flexibility, overuse, inadequate recovery time.

Plantar Fasciitis
Description:  Heel pain, especially noticeable with the first steps in the morning.

Common Causes:  Poor calf flexibility, overuse, improper footwear.

Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS):
Description:  Pain on the outside of the knee, sometimes extending up the thigh or down the leg, especially late in your workout.

Common Causes: Muscular imbalances in hip and knee strength, tightness in tensor fascia lata and gluteus medius musculature, running on uneven surfaces.

As you can see, the causes of these running-related injuries are often multifactorial.  A common finding with all these injuries, however, are strength deficits and flexibility deficits.  Due to the repetitive nature of running, small imbalances in strength between the left side of your body and the right side become more apparent.  This is why it is important to address these imbalances to help reduce risk of injury.

At Fit For Life Physical Therapy, we offer a comprehensive Runner’s Evaluation in which we can help identify those imbalances for you.  During this, we will assess your muscular strength, joint range of motion, balance & stability, as well as analyze your running gait mechanics.  Together we will devise a treatment plan to reduce and eliminate these imbalances.

If interested, please visit our website https://www.fitforlifephysicaltherapy.com/, email us at info@fitforlifephysicaltherapy.com, or call or text us at any of these phone numbers for our three convenient locations inside Fleet Feet Columbus stores:

Polaris:  1270 East Powell Road Lewis Center, Ohio 43035 ~ 614-981-2065

Upper Arlington:  1344 West Lane Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43221 ~ 614-981-1979

New Albany:  5792 North Hamilton Road, Columbus, Ohio 43230 ~ 614-581-7441