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Running injuries, explained properly.
Written by a physiotherapist who only works with runners. Every claim has a source or is marked as our reasoning, and every section ends with what to do.
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Injuries
Can you keep running with Achilles tendinopathy?
Most runners with a sore Achilles don't need to stop. The next morning tells you whether the dose was right, and a stronger calf is what gets you out of the loop.
Injuries
Can you run with plantar fasciitis?
Plantar heel pain rarely responds to one clever exercise. The largest trial so far found that simple advice and a heel cup did most of the work, and that patience did the rest.
Pain and soreness
Sore or injured? Five checks before your next run
Stiff legs after a hard session are part of training. Pain that behaves differently is worth catching early, and the two are easy to tell apart once you know what to look for.
All articles
- Injuries Running injuries, sorted by where it hurts An index to everything we have written, arranged the way you would actually look for it.
- Training and load Why runners get injured This is the piece underneath everything else on this site. It is also the place where the honest answer is less tidy than the advice you usually get.
- Pain and soreness The first 72 hours of a new running injury The panic window. What actually matters here is smaller than you think, and most of the urgency is misplaced.
- Return to running The whole way back, from injury to start line Four phases, and the one everybody skips is the third.
- Training and load Running for the next twenty years Written for the version of you that wants to still be doing this when the current race has been forgotten.
- Injuries Shin pain that arrives at the same distance every time Most shin problems get better with load management. This is the one that usually does not, and recognising it saves months of doing the right thing for the wrong condition.
- Injuries Groin pain when you run, and the four things it usually is For years this area had a dozen labels for the same complaints and no agreement on any of them. That is fixed now, and it matters more than it sounds.
- Training and load How strong should your calf actually be The calf does more of the work of running than anything else, and it is the easiest thing on your body to test properly at home.
- Training and load Sleep, and the number that got repeated until it sounded like evidence Everybody knows sleep matters. Almost nobody quoting the numbers has read what the consensus panel actually concluded.
- Training and load Fuelling a long run, and the gut you have to train The wall is not willpower. It is a delivery rate, and the part doing the delivering responds to practice like everything else.
- Training and load Cramp, and why the salt tablets did not work Everyone knows what causes cramp. The evidence for what everyone knows turns out to be unusually thin, and the better explanation changes what you do about it.
- Training and load Heat, fluid, and the mistake that runs the other way Decades of advice told runners to drink ahead of thirst. The condition that advice produces is the one that puts people in hospital.
- Return to running Back to running after being ill Two weeks off feels like a season lost. It is not, and treating it as one is how a chest infection becomes a calf strain.
- Training and load Running after fifty, and the joint that actually changes Ageing in running is not a general fading. It is concentrated in one place, which means the response can be concentrated too.
- Injuries Running and arthritis, and the number that surprises people The most repeated claim about running is that it wears your joints out. The largest analysis of the question found the sedentary group doing worse.
- Injuries Achilles pain at the bone, and why the usual exercises make it worse Two conditions, one tendon, and a treatment that helps at one end and provokes the other. Where your finger lands decides which plan you need.
- Injuries Burning, numbness, or a pebble under your forefoot Most foot pain in runners is tissue that hurts. A smaller group is nerve, and it announces itself with words the others do not use.
- Injuries Back pain and running, and which way the arrow points The assumption is that pounding wears the spine down. The measurements point the other way, which changes what you should do when your back hurts.
- Training and load Iron, and why a normal blood test may not be a normal result for you One of the few genuinely fixable causes of a season going backwards. It also has one of the most misunderstood test results in running.
- Return to running Running after a baby, and the timeline nobody gives you One number gets repeated as a rule it was never meant to be. The research that does exist is more useful, and more specific, than the number.
- Training and load Your cycle and your training, when the average effect is tiny The research and the lived experience look like they contradict each other. They do not, and understanding why tells you what to actually do about it.
- Training and load Under-fuelled: the problem that shows up as everything else It rarely announces itself. It turns up as a stress fracture that will not settle, a season that goes backwards, or a run of colds, and gets treated as four separate problems.
- Training and load Running shoes, and the three things the research actually settles Most shoe advice you will be given in a shop rests on ideas that have been tested and did not hold. A few things have held, and they are not the ones being sold.
- Training and load Cadence, and what 180 steps a minute is not One of the few changes to running form that has been measured properly. What it does is clear. What it fixes is less clear than the internet suggests.
- Training and load What lifting actually does for your running Two sessions a week, for reasons that have nothing to do with looking strong. The evidence here is better than the evidence for most things runners spend money on.
- Injuries Deep buttock pain when you run, and why sitting is the giveaway It is the one running injury where a hard chair is a better test than a run. And it is the one where the standard hamstring advice does the most damage.
- Injuries Pain around your kneecap, and the one thing that has to change first Vague ache around the kneecap, worse on stairs and after sitting. The research on this one is unusually blunt about which part of the treatment carries the weight.
- Injuries Outside hip pain when you run, and why stretching it makes it worse The tendons on the side of your hip are squashed against the bone every time your hip drops inwards. That is why the stretch that feels like it should help is usually the thing keeping it going.
- Injuries Inside ankle pain when you run: the tendon that holds your arch up Pain that runs behind the bump on the inside of your ankle and forward into the arch follows the shape of one tendon. A single-leg heel raise usually confirms it.
- Injuries Outside ankle pain when you run, and why it is often not the old sprain A sprain hurts in front of and below the bump on the outside of your ankle. The tendons hurt behind it. That difference is the whole diagnosis, and it changes what you do next.
- Injuries Foot pain when you run: your first steps in the morning narrow it down Point to the sore spot with one finger, then notice what your first thirty seconds out of bed feel like. Those two answers cover most running foot pain.
- Injuries Calf pain when you run: bend your knee and find out which muscle it is One of the two calf muscles crosses the knee and one does not. Bending your knee decides which is loaded, and that is the fastest way to find out what you are dealing with.
- Injuries Shin pain when you run: the size of the sore patch decides what it is Run a finger down the inside edge of your shin bone. How much of it is sore separates the most common running injury from the one you cannot run through.
- Return to running How to rebuild your running without doing the injury twice Most comebacks are built on a date and a percentage. Neither has much behind it. Here is what to check before the first run, what to change week to week, and where it usually goes wrong.
- Pain and soreness Sore or injured? Five checks before your next run Stiff legs after a hard session are part of training. Pain that behaves differently is worth catching early, and the two are easy to tell apart once you know what to look for.
- Training and load Before you call it overtraining, rule these out Flat legs, high heart rates and a mood that has gone off are real. Whether they add up to overtraining syndrome is a much harder question than the internet suggests, and the answer changes what you should do.
- Pain and soreness Why it still hurts long after the injury should have healed Tissue heals on a timeline. Pain does not always follow it. Here is what pain that outlasts an injury tells you, what it does not tell you, and what moves it.
- Training and load What your watch calls training load is not the load that matters There are two kinds of training load, and a watch can only see one of them properly. Knowing which number you are looking at changes how much weight to put on it.
- Injuries The two hamstring problems runners get are opposites One arrives in a second at the track. The other creeps in over months and hurts when you sit down. Telling them apart decides almost everything about what you should do next.
- Injuries Where your stress fracture is decides how serious it is The same diagnosis covers a shin that needs sensible loading and a hip that can need surgery. The site is what separates them, and it changes almost every decision that follows.
- Injuries Can you keep running with Achilles tendinopathy? Most runners with a sore Achilles don't need to stop. The next morning tells you whether the dose was right, and a stronger calf is what gets you out of the loop.
- Injuries Knee pain when you run: where it hurts narrows it down Point to the sore spot with one finger. Where it sits, and when it shows up in a run, narrows the list to a handful of causes that need different first moves.
- Online physio What online physiotherapy can do for a runner, and what it cannot We run an online clinic, so treat this with the scepticism it deserves. Here is what the trials show, where face to face still wins, and the tasks we would send you elsewhere for.
- Injuries Can you run with a torn meniscus? The word tear makes it sound as if something needs fixing. For most runners with a sore knee, the trials say otherwise, and running is usually part of the way back.
- Injuries Can you run with plantar fasciitis? Plantar heel pain rarely responds to one clever exercise. The largest trial so far found that simple advice and a heel cup did most of the work, and that patience did the rest.
- Injuries Why the outside of your knee hurts at the same point in every run IT band pain tends to arrive on schedule. That schedule is the most useful number you have, because every change you make can be tested against it.
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How we write
Articles are written for runners making a decision this week, not for search engines.
- Sources you can check. Research is cited with a numbered reference and a DOI at the end of the article.
- Evidence and reasoning kept apart. Where studies run out, we say so and label our own reasoning as reasoning.
- Something to do. Every section ends with what to do next.
- Dated. Each article shows when it was last updated.
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Four questions, two minutes. We read every one personally, and you'll hear from us the same day. If online rehab isn't right for your injury, we'll tell you and point you somewhere better.
Who you'll work with
Teis S. K., Bachelor in Physiotherapy, MSc in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy
Physiotherapist and researcher in musculoskeletal health. You work with the same person from the first message to the last follow-up.
Prefer email? tsk@pacerrehab.com
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