If you love running laps around Albert Park Lake or weaving through the South Melbourne Market streets, you’re in good company. Running is brilliant for fitness — but knee pain, shin splints, and Achilles issues can make it a slog. Here’s how our physios keep their running clients training consistently, without the niggles.
The most common running related injuries
Some of the common runner-related aches and pains we see include:
- – Runner’s knee (patellofemoral joint pain): We typically see pain around or behind the kneecap, and it can be more painful after going up and down stairs or hills, or once getting up after sitting for extended periods.
- – ITB irritation: This tends to present as pain on the outside of the knee pain, and usually we see this closely linked to a sike in training loads, or a weakness and/or tightness of the muscles further up around the hip or lower back.
- – Shin splints (medial tibial stress): So many runners have experienced this pain, with aching along the inside of the shin. Usually it warms up – even if the first few k’s are very painful – and you’ll forget about it but then after you cool down it comes back to bite you.
- – Achilles tendinopathy: This will be you if you feel like you can hardly get your heel to the floor on the morning after a run. Likewise, it tends to improve after an hour or two in the morning of walking around, but can also be really stiff when you start your next run.
Why do these happen to runners?
Most running pains come from a mix of training load (too much too soon), strength deficits (hip/knee/calf), and sometimes running technique. There are a number of other factors like the surface you run on, the shoes you run in and many more, but the training plan you’ve got and the strength of your muscles are the biggest levers. There should also be consideration to your overall health. These include things like your diet, sleep patterns and stress level.
