Running related injuries are very common with studies reporting up to 90% of athletes reporting an injury preventing them from training or competition. Many groups including Physical Therapists are interested in reducing this injury risk through training volume modifications, shoe selection, strength training, and gait retraining. Despite popular internet opinions, research has not concluded on...
Injuries presenting to our Boulder Physical Therapy practice fall into two broad categories including acute, traumatic (sprains, strains, fractures) and microtrauma or overuse injuries (tendinopathy). This latter category is the most common, but may also be more preventable. Overuse injuries are created when a participant performs too much activity, too soon and the forces of...
Despite improvements in coaching, training schedules, and running shoes the vast majority of runners can expect a running related injury in their career. The majority of these injuries are overuse in nature secondary to an overload of the injured tissue (muscle, bone, joint, tendon). In short, too much too soon without adequate time for tissue...
Running remains one of the most popular forms of exercise due to its’ convenience, low cost of entry, and aerobic efficiency. It is difficult to replace the same health benefits you receive from a 30 minute run with another mode of activity. Unfortunately the rates of running related injuries have not been reduced with improvements...
With access to miles of paths and acres of open space running remains one of the most popular outdoor activities in Boulder. Despite its’ accessibility, low cost of participation, and health benefits running related injuries keep many from training or competing at their preferred levels. One recent area of research has focused on gait retraining...
Lower extremity stiffness (“leg stiffness”) describes the resistance the joints and muscles in your lower body will have to movement when your foot contacts the ground during running. Think of your leg as a spring; the more tightly coiled spring will be stiffer, the more loosely coiled will be more deformable. A stiffer leg is...
Running remains one of the most popular forms of aerobic exercise due to its’ effectiveness and minimal equipment costs and entry fees. The majority of runners will sustain a running related injury at some point in their careers limiting their ability to train or compete. Training errors, increases in a runner’s volume (frequency, duration, terrain,...
In our previous blog posts we have discussed the variety of interventions available to reduce the high injury rates seen among both novice and experienced runners. Many of these interventions are designed to reduce the loading forces across the lower body at foot strike and push off. In our Boulder Physical Therapy practice we commonly...
One of the greatest misconceptions in the treatment of musculoskeletal injuries is using interventions to create symmetry in the body between right and left sides. Asymmetry is often the norm vs. the exception but we function very well in life and sport with these asymmetries. Small asymmetries should be accepted while larger asymmetries should be...
Running injuries remain a common problem for the vast majority of runners. Many of these athletes report a loss of training days or competition due to a current or previous injury. Contributing factors include muscle weakness, decreased mobility, and training errors. Progressing training volumes (frequency, intensity, duration, terrain) too quickly prevent the tissues from properly adapting...