Physical therapy for runners
Whether or not you’re experiencing an injury right now, it’s important for all runners to keep physical therapy in the back of their mind as a way to keep them on the track, pavement, or trails for years to come. Often, people associate physical therapy with purely reactive care, and don’t realize that plenty of injuries are preventable if you have the right person helping you along the way.
Runners are particularly susceptible to these types of slow-growing, but debilitating injuries. Just ask any of your friends if they’ve experienced “runner’s knee”, IT band strains, or shin splints and you’re likely to see most hands go up (myself included). The fascinating thing about these injuries is that they often take time to develop, and are the result of muscle imbalances and the slow build-up of forces on your body. As I’ve discussed
Now, you might be asking yourself what you can do to prevent this. The simple answer is to see a physical therapist. And I don’t mean come in once a week for months on end, eating into your training time, workday, or time with family. If you’re not actively dealing with an injury, you could very easily benefit from seeing a physical therapist once a month to check in and make sure you’re not moving in the direction of these slow-building injuries. As little as an hour a month can reap huge dividends down the road when you’re able to keep running into your fifties and sixties because you took care of your body early on.
This type of care is often called “pre-hab”, but really it’s just seeing a physical therapist with a preventative mindset. At BaseCamp we call this our Performance Membership, and it’s what many of our patients opt for after they’ve recovered from injury. It’s a simple way to make sure you’re not regressing back into injury or causing a different one due to compensations or incorrect movement patterns.
For runners especially, this can help prevent issues you may not even think about. For example, if you break your right ankle and successfully rehab it you may think you’re fine - only to experience left knee pain months down the road because you didn’t realize how much you were favoring your left side. This is something that’s extremely difficult for an athlete to catch, and is exactly where a physical therapists expert eye comes in.
All BaseCamp Continuity plans come with:
Monthly training plan
Monthly 60-minute session with a PT to assess movement and make exercise adjustments
Text/email feedback as needed
Industry discounts for training/nutrition
If this is something you’re interested, feel free to reach out with any questions or click below to schedule your appointment now! Plans are purchased as a package and come with 6 sessions spread over 6 months for $150/session.