Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast we’re talking about whether or not it is okay to begin a walk/run program when you are well on your way to healing a metatarsal stress fracture.
Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast we’re talking about whether or not it is okay to begin a walk/run program when you are well on your way to healing a metatarsal stress fracture.
One of the biggest problems when you get a metatarsal stress fracture is deciding when it’s safe for you to go to the next level of activity.
I just got a great question from a high school cross country runner who is healing from a stress fracture and wanted to get back to running as quickly as possible.
The question was whether or not it was okay to begin a walk/run program at four weeks of stress fracture healing?
Okay….heres’ the question:
“My son is a cross country runner, and about four weeks in, minimal pain. If I’m understanding, is it okay to start a walk run program with careful monitoring?”
The short answer is yes. However, I don’t know, because I haven’t seen your son, looked at his foot, push around on his foot or anything else. But here’s how I would go about making that decision. Again, I can do it on a webcam call, but you can do it yourself too. This is true for everybody listening right now. What I would do is really simple. You need to be tracking your pain and you need to see improvement.
What I do in every case is realize two things. One, you are always getting stronger if your healing. Number two, if you want to get stronger as quickly as possible, you have to push for limits instead of waiting for timelines.
So I’m going to say that again….
You have to push limits instead of waiting for timelines.
You have to also realize that you’re going to make mistakes, and that is okay. If you’re six weeks into healing, and you run, and you notice pain in your metatarsal that had a stress fracture, that is going to freak you out, but it doesn’t mean that you’re back to square one. It means that you irritated the bone. It does not mean you broke the bone in half. And so, you have to be prepared that you’re going to have some discomfort, but you have to immediately recognize it and back off. That’s the careful monitoring part you just mentioned. Everyone who gets injured and gets a real over-training injury, got it because they ignored the discomfort.
I believe wholeheartedly, and I actually saw an article this morning, I think it was on Trail Runner, and it said, when in doubt, any runner should take three days off. No running for three days, when in doubt. I think that’s a good rule. That doesn’t go far enough to explain how you should monitor this. But that’s a good idea. The first thing is that, if you’ve been healing, if you know that it’s been improving, if your pain is definitely going down, if your swelling is going down, if it’s difficult to find the spot where it hurts, when it used to be you could barely touch it and it hurt, then, yeah, you’re probably really improving.
Now, the walk run program, that’s one thing, but there are also safer ways to do it. You could run on an AlterG treadmill. You’re already doing aqua jogging it sounds like. An AlterG treadmill is a way to run and get your neuromuscular connections back, build up your aerobic fitness better, get your running form back while you’re removing the force of gravity. That’s another option. That’s a lot safer than doing a run walk program.
Now, if you’re going to do a run walk program and that sort of stuff… I’m not sure where it is, I think it’s on the Doc On The Run YouTube channel. I know there’s a Doc On The Run podcasts about it, but I have a thing that’s the test run. How to do a test run. If you’re going to run, run, if you’re going to go outside and actually try to do it, that’s probably the safest way to go about it. So you should probably check that out.
You are right on the last part of your question, careful monitoring. That is the key. You have to monitor closely, and you have to reevaluate frequently. Going every three weeks to the doctor is way too infrequent, if you’re going to compete in cross country. High school kids, things happen quickly. You get strong quickly. You cannot drop out and stay out for the rest of the season. It doesn’t work. You never catch up. So it’s crucial that you really do monitor quickly. That’s huge.
Yes, in short, as long as you’re improving and you’re confident that it’s healed enough to withstand the tissue applied to it, you should be able to do it. That’s probably a better question for your doctor. But again, the doctors probably would say, “I said three weeks.” Well, if your doctor’s not even answering your questions about what you actually did during that period, they’re not actually in a position to make that evaluation. You probably can, on your own, as long as you confirm that your symptoms are dropping off and you’re improving.
If you have a metatarsal stress fracture and you want to make sure it’s healing and figure out when you can move to the next level of activity you got to check out the metatarsal stress fracture course for runners. I created that course to help you understand exactly what I teach to patients who are recovering from stress fractures and are trying to get back to running.
This is exactly the same information I would teach to you personally if you booked a telemedicine visit or a WebCam visit. It’s also the same information I have been teaching to physicians at medical conference when I’m trying to help them understand how to help runners like you heal faster and get back to running as quickly as possible.
Stress Fracture Course Offer
Metatarsal Stress Fracture Rapid Recovery For Runners
If you have a stress fracture, you’re probably really freaked out right now and think you’re going to lose all of your fitness while you heal. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I teach doctors how to help runners heal and maintain running fitness.
If your doc said “Stop Running!” You don’t have to stop running. You just have to reduce the stress to the injured bone so it can heal. You just have to be thoughtful about how you maintain your running fitness so you can keep healing.
Run without making it worse. The worst thing you can do is sit still, stop exercising and lose all of your running fitness. It is possible to maintain your running fitness while you heal your metatarsal stress fracture. This course shows how.
Enroll in the Metatarsal Stress Fracture Course now!
If you have a stress fracture
You’re probably really freaked out right now and think you’re going to lose all of your fitness while you heal. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I teach doctors how to help runners heal and maintain running fitness.
If your doc said “Stop Running”
You don’t have to stop running. You just have to reduce the stress to the injured bone so it can heal. You just have to be thoughtful about how you maintain your running fitness so you can keep healing.
Run without making it worse
The worst thing you can do is sit still, stop exercising and lose all of your running fitness. It is possible to maintain your running fitness while you heal your metatarsal stress fracture. This course shows how.
Enroll in the Metatarsal Stress Fracture Course now!
If you have a question that you would like answered as a future edition of the Doc On The Run Podcast, send it to me. And then make sure you join me in the next edition of the Doc On The Run Podcast.
«« #321 Question every timeline of running again after injury |