This episode comes from a question from a runner I saw in person during a second opinion house call.
She had a metatarsal stress fracture and felt like it was more comfortable when she was barefoot.
The more you can reduce the stress and strain to the injured metatarsal bone and the healing stress fracture the faster it will heal.
The types of shoes you wear during the recovery can change those stresses for better or worse depending upon which shoes you are wearing.
You need to focus on protecting and healing that metatarsal stress fracture if you want to get back to running as fast as possible.
Today on the Doc on the Run Podcast, we’re talking about whether or not it is better to go barefoot with a stress fracture.
If you want to get back to running faster after a foot fracture (or any overtraining injury), the whole key is make sure that you are increasing your activity to get stronger, instead of just sitting around and waiting, while you get weaker.
But the only way you can do that is with constant readjustment based on how you feel and what happens in response to that activity during that recovery process.
This episode is about runner with a healing fracture who was told by a doctor, “don’t run.” Instead he was supposed to wait for another x-ray to prove it was healed.
And after I did a consultation call with him, I actually cleared him to start running now.
Today on the Doc on the Run Podcast, we’re talking about a recovering runner with a fracture who wants to ramp up his intensity today.
I was just doing a second opinion consultation over webcam with a runner who had an overtraining injury.
She was really worried that she could to lose all of her fitness while waiting to heal.
It is just not okay for a runner to sit and wait for weeks, or months, to heal an injury.
If you don’t exercise at all, you will lose your base of aerobic fitness, the neuromuscular connections that keep you coordinated and help you maintain good running form.
You start to lose it all at a very fast rate compared to how long it takes to build that running fitness.
Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we’re talking about how healing running injuries is a race a against time.
I was just having a discussion with a runner about the things that she could do to accelerate her running injury recovery.
She has been yo-yoing through a cycle or workouts and short runs when she feels good, then does a little bit too much.
That’s when she gets re-injured.
She is aggravating the injury over and over. The real problem isn’t her injury. She’s just pushing her recovery too fast.
Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we’re talking about how you have to slow down if you want to speed up.
View Details »There is no hope on a downward slope.
I know that sounds really negative and terrible, but it’s true.
A recovering runner recently called for a called me for a second opinion telemedicine visit. Her doctor had told her to wait…to wait to get better. In fact, she waited for 12 weeks and she did exactly what she was told: nothing. She did no exercise for 12 weeks.
If you just think about the last time you were really fit, and if you just stopped exercising completely, right then for three months, how fit would you be at the end of that 12 weeks?
Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we’re talking about how there is no hope on a downward slope.
View Details »There are the three forms of stress that can affect you and the injured tissue when you actually get back to running after you’ve been injured and you feel like you’ve recovered.
I was just recently doing a telemedicine visit with someone who had an injury and was getting better. She was told to start running, but she wasn’t really given any specific instructions.
She was told, “You can go and just kind of run a little bit and see how it feels.”
If you’re a runner and you haven’t been running for weeks because of an injury, you’re probably going to feel so good when you start running that you’re going to do too much. If you do too much, and then you start having pain, you’re going to completely freak out because you’re going to be worried that you’ve completely set back your injury.
Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we’re talking about the three forms of stress when you start running after injury.
I just got off a telemedicine call with a woman who was an elite runner in college.
She has been having a difficult time getting back to an acceptable level of activity after recovering from her overtraining injury.
When you have been doing a certain run at a certain pace, as a part of your training for years, you always fell like you can do that workout.
But when you get a running injury and take time off, unfortunately, your sense of reality is off in that moment. What you sense about your fitness is off.
Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast we’re talking about how your sensor is broken.
If you’re a runner who’s been injured, recovering, and you feel like you’re plateaued or you’re not really getting anywhere, I have some very good news for you today. That’s awesome!
Most of the runners who call me for a telemedicine visit, they’ve hit a plateau.
Although that can be really frustrating, I can tell you from experience, this is very, very good news.
What’s going on is really simple.
The changes you need to make, they’re all around you, they’re right in front of you, and they’re available to you right now. You just have to notice them.
Today the Doc On The Run Podcast, we’re talking about how it is actually great if you’re not getting better.
View Details »
I just got off a webcam call with an injured runner who has pain and swelling in her foot. We were on a recovering runner telemedicine 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 kind of laughed and said she was confused about something as simple as going up the flight of stairs to her bedroom.
How do I go up steps when my foot is painful? Do I start with my good foot or my bad foot?
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.
View Details »I was recently watching the Wizard of Oz with my kids.
There’s this one scene, where Glenda tells Dorothy that she already had has all the ability to get home. That all she has to do is click her heels together and say, “There’s no place like home” and she’ll be transported there.
Dorothy had that power all along.
When I see runners who have had running injuries, they’ve been injured. They’ve been on this long journey of seeming like running through the haunted forest and trying to dodge the wicked witch and trying to get over this running injury.
All injured runners really do already have the power to get better.
Today on the Doc On The Run podcast were talking about how you already know the path to recovery.
View Details »