One of the most common questions I get as a running physical therapist is, "What shoe should I wear?" Although my patients don't like it, the answer is almost always the same: it depends. The shoe itself is a tool. Like any tool, its job is to help you accomplish a specific task. Some shoes are built for daily mileage, some are designed for racing, some are intended for trails, and others are designed to provide a different running experience altogether. Footwear companies us

Can Your Body Handle a Carbon-Plated Running Shoe? Carbon-plated running shoes, often called "super shoes," have changed the running world. Over the last several years it is not just carbon that makes a shoe "super" but other parts of the shoe such as the performance foam and nylon plates put shoes in the super shoe category. Nearly every major shoe company now has a super shoe model, and runners are no longer using them only on race day. Many athletes are using them for wo

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

Photo by Alan Lam I love running. I hate telling people they can't run. Running is great exercise and it is so beneficial for both mental and physical health. But if you run long enough, chances are you will deal with pain or injury at some point. As a physical therapist who works with runners every day, these are the five most common questions runners ask about running injuries and answers that can help you to stay healthy and keep running. 1. "Why do my knees hurt when I ru

Sometimes the first few minutes of a run feel stiff or painful, but after a mile or two the discomfort settles down and the run actually feels better. What does this mean? As a running physical therapist working with runners in Atlanta, this is something I hear fairly often: “If the pain goes away during the run, is it okay to keep running?” In many cases, the answer is yes, but with the right modifications. It depends on the type of tissue involved and how the pain behaves d

In my PT clinics we always know when a big race is coming up because one or two weeks before race day the phone is ringing off the hook. Pain or small injuries that could be ignored when mileage was low start to get louder and more difficult to run through. Why does this happen? Training Fatigue Most of the time our clients try to pin point the one thing they did that caused the injury, but it is usually not from one single workout - it is overall training fatigue. During the