Running Injuries

Knee pain is the number one most common injury among runners and has been for years. There are many kinds of knee injuries that runners can have. Most knee injuries are due to changes in training load, adding too much intensity or duration at once or even due to a change in surface. Several years ago I had a terrible flare up of IT band pain. I lived in Boston and was training for a spring marathon and we had a late snow. I had a long run scheduled and didn't want to move it

When you got injured did you treat your injury or just ignore it? Did you look up what you should do on social media, chat GPT, Claude or ask a friend what to do? Did you go to PT for a couple sessions then decide you were good enough then move on? Did you make it all the way through treatment until the pain was gone then stop? When you get injured there is more to getting better than rest or even making then pain stop. Of course I no longer want you to be in pain - but as a

I have heard some version of this from runners for years: “It hurts when you run? Just stop running.” There are absolutely times when I tell a runner they cannot run. A suspected bone stress injury is an obvious example. High-impact activity may need to stop while the athlete is appropriately evaluated, followed by progressive loading and a gradual return to running.¹ But for many running injuries, “just stop running” isn't a treatment plan. As a physical therapist, I want to

As you know by now, if you have been reading my blog - there are a lot of things that can contribute to a running injury: training history, previous injuries, strength, recovery, nutrition, sleep, biomechanics, and what changed before the pain started. Sex is another piece of that picture. For a long time, sports medicine research was heavily weighted toward male athletes. We now have better data showing that although male and female runners may have similar overall rates of

Living and running in Atlanta, avoiding hills is almost impossible. I frequently have runners tell me that “Hills hurt.” Sometimes my clients have stopped running hills completely because they assume hills are bad for their knees, Achilles, calves, hamstrings—or whatever happens to be bothering them. But hills aren't inherently bad. They are just a different training stimulus. Just like adding mileage or speed work, adding hills changes what we are asking the body to do. If

You made an appointment with a physical therapist because your knee hurts when you run. Then I start asking about your sleep, what you ate yesterday, your training schedule, stress at work, previous injuries, shoes, menstrual cycle, and whether you've ever had anemia. You may be thinking: Are we eventually going to talk about my knee? Yes. But first, I need to know more about you. When I evaluate a running injury, the conversation we have before I start testing strength, mobi

When a runner comes into my clinic, one of the first questions I ask is pretty obvious: “Where does it hurt?” Where you feel pain gives me a place to start. Anterior knee pain makes me think about different structures than pain behind the ankle. Groin pain creates a different list than lateral hip pain. But after years of evaluating and treating runners, I can tell you that where you hurt is only the beginning of the story. Running injuries commonly involve the knee, ankle/fo

Does your running form actually need fixing? Learn when gait retraining can help runners with pain and injury—and when changing your stride may be unnecessary.

I just got back from The Running School New York- a running camp in the Catskils where I gave a lecture on Low Energy Availability (LEA) and Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs). After the lecture, I was blown away by how many athletes came up to talk with me. I spent more than an hour answering questions, and I know that many of those runners walked away wondering, “Could this be happening to me?” This is the second time I have given this lecture at a running camp this

“I am a runner.” It is such a simple statement, but for many of us it means SO much more than the fact that we like to run. Running becomes part of how we see ourselves. We wake up early to run. Our friends are runners. Our vacations somehow turn into race weekends. We structure our schedules around training. We spend way too much money on shoes. We follow other runners on social media and talk about running with people who actually want to hear about our long run. And slowly

No runner wants to be put in a walking boot or be told they need crutches. Yet, there are a few running injuries severe enough to warrant these precautions, and stress fractures, or what healthcare providers call bone stress injuries (BSIs) are one of them. Receiving a BSI diagnosis can feel devastating, especially if it happens during the beginning or middle of a season, when training for a big race, or after returning to running post-hiatus. Bone stress injuries occur when

Hip flexors are one of those things runners love to blame. Tight hips. Short strides. Low back pain. That nagging feeling that something just isn’t working right. And while hip flexors are rarely the only issue, they play a meaningful role in how we run and how problems can start to show up. The hip flexors are a group of muscles that help advance the leg during running. After your foot leaves the ground, they help bring the thigh forward so you can take your next step. They

Hip pain can sneak up on runners after miles of pounding the pavement, especially when they’re pushing mileage or intensity. Sometimes, it starts as a dull ache and becomes a sharp pain with hip flexion, uphill running, or sprinting. If this sounds familiar, hip impingement might be to blame. Also known as femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), hip impingement happens when there’s abnormal contact between the bones of the hip joint during movement. If left unchecked, hip impinge

Plantar fasciitis is one of the most frustrating injuries a runner can face. That sharp heel pain when you first get out of bed or during your run can stop your training in its tracks. The common advice? Wear good shoes and rest. But here’s the thing: while supportive footwear helps, what you really need are strong feet, solid balance, and a stable core. Strengthening the muscles that control your foot, ankle, and lower leg is key to preventing and recovering from plantar fas

Getting back to running after an injury isn’t just about being cleared—it’s about returning with a plan that reflects how your body heals. And this is where many runners go wrong. You don’t just jump back into your old mileage and hope for the best. Recovery isn’t linear, and it doesn’t end when pain goes away. Tissues heal on their own timelines, and without a strategy to rebuild strength, capacity, and control, the risk of reinjury skyrockets. Here’s what runners often get

Thirty-five might still feel young, but in the world of running, it marks an important milestone—you’ve officially become a masters runner! While it sounds like a fancy title, it simply reflects that your body is beginning to change in ways that affect how you train, recover, and stay injury-free. But don’t worry—this isn’t about slowing down. With smarter strategies, you can stay fast, fit, and injury-free for decades. Whether you’re male or female, understanding the nuances

Runners hear a lot of advice. I get to hear all about it in clinic every week. Some of it is helpful. A lot of it sounds right. And some of it sticks around long after it should. Most of the time the advice is meant to help and not hurt from training partners, friends, people who have been in your shoes (okay their shoes, but you know what I mean) BUT general advice doesn’t usually address what you have going on. It might feel like a good idea, but it might also make things

It’s a scenario most runners know well: you add miles to your long run, switch from treadmill to pavement, or start pushing paces and suddenly, something hurts. Sometimes the pain is a dull, nagging discomfort that fades as you warm up. Other times, it sharpens into a pinpoint spot in your shin that makes every step miserable. That’s when the questions start: Is this just shin splints, or is it something more serious—like a bone stress injury? Both conditions sit on the same

When a runner walks into the clinic with knee pain, we must look at the knee and the surrounding structures and tissues. What seems like a knee issue often started higher up—or lower down—the chain. And if you’re only chasing the pain, you’ll probably miss the real problem. Running injuries don’t come out of nowhere. They almost always stem from a combination of factors: a training change made 4–6 weeks ago, a sleep deficit, nutritional gaps, higher stress, or simply movement

Persistent discomfort along the outside of the ankle can be a real problem for runners, especially those who log high mileage on uneven terrain. This pain might be peroneal tendinopathy, an overuse injury involving the peroneal tendons, which are crucial for stabilizing the foot during running. Without proper management, peroneal tendinopathy can cause compensations in gait, increase the risk of other injuries, and keep you off the road longer than you’d like. What Are the Pe