Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast we’re talking about how to go up stairs when you are recovering from a running injury.
How do I go up steps when my foot is painful? Do I start with my good foot or my bad foot?
I just got off a webcam call with a young woman who has pain and swelling in her foot. We were on a recovering runner coaching call talking about all of the little things that can help you recover and heal faster. During our discussion she asked a great question. She kinda laughed and said she was confused about something as simple as going up the flight of stairs to her bedroom.
Which is better for my injured foot when going up the stairs in my house? Is it better to move my injured foot up first? or… Is it better to move my non-injured foot up first?
This is a great question, and something I have been asked many times by injured runners!
The first thing to notice here is that any athlete who wants to runner faster has to find the little opportunities to relieve stress to the healing part that is injured.
Everything matters if you really want to heal as quickly as possible. Each opportunity to identify little areas where progress can be made, they all help speed your recovery.
This one situation where the expression, “Always put your best foot forward” may be wrong. Think about this.
Which foot is stronger and better able to support your body weight?
Which foot is faster and will be able to move up quicker from one step to the next?
The obvious answer is that you good foot is both stronger and faster than your injured foot.
Whether you have a metatarsal stress fracture or Achilles tendinitis or a plantar plate sprain, you should remember first and foremost, you only have one injured part. The job of the entire rest of your healthy body is to cary, protect and heal that one injured part.
One way to do that is to spend as little time as possible on the injured foot.
If you stand on a step with both feet on that step, and you hold on to the railing, you start from a stable place. You can then quickly, move the good foot quickly up to the next step while only momentarily. If you do that, you are really only momentarily putting weight on your injured foot.
Once your good foot is on the step above your injured foot, You can simply pull your injured foot up to the same step where you have your good foot. Now you have both feet on the same step again.
Your injured foot is obviously not as strong and not as capable as your non-injured foot. So when climbing stairs, just remember to put your best foot forward, so you can get back to running as quickly as possible.
You have to create a plan now. And that’s why I wrote the Runners Rapid Recovery Journal. It’s just a thing that actually gives you a way to really, and truly look at what you were doing in training and apply it to your healing. That’s really all there is to it. So remember you already know the path to recovery. Just figure out what you were doing in training and start doing that today.
That’s really the key!
Right now the Runner’s Rapid Recovery Journal is on sale and you can get it at discount. You can get an instant download version today. You can find a link in the show notes at the bottom of this episode at docontherun.com under the podcast tab.
Go check it out!
Get the Runner’s Rapid Recovery Journal…
