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Race day is approaching. You put months of training and during that time, in ideal world, there would be no lingering soreness, no twinges. Are you worried about some long-standing maladies caused by overtraining? Do you think that there were other factors like body inefficiencies or misalignments that led to soreness, pain, even injury during your race prep? In reality, most runners have some issues that vary in severity. The running pain spectrum is wide.

Sports and Orthopedic Physical Therapist is trained and equipped to help runners to avoid or recover from most running injuries. I listed some conditions we treat at Park Sports Physical Therapy in the order of their frequency:

1. Anterior knee pain, or Patella Femoral Pain Syndrome is the most common one, in some studies it was reported that it constitutes close to 40 percent of all running injuries. It is caused by biomechanical factors that increase load on the knee. Those factors are: excessive foot inward rolling (overpronation), weakness in quads and hip muscles, hip rotational deformity and disproportional stride lengths.
2. Achilles tendinitis most common in runners over age 30. It is most commonly caused by high or low arches, tight hip flexors, weak trunk. These factors lead to overtraining  that contribute to the tendon inflammation.Plantar fasciitis is often caused by the same factors that contribute to Achilles tendinitis. Some studies showed that it is correlated to the lower back pain.
3. Less common are Illiotibial Band Syndrome, Shin splints and Metatarsal Stress Fractures.

Physical Therapist can help you to become a smarter and stronger runner by evaluating your functional mobility and movement patterns. We can help you design a specific exercises and stretches to address those issues.