Regardless of how careful you are, most runners will have to deal with injuries and, often, fellow runners can be the best sources of wisdom on rehabilitation. As always, the best way to recover from a running injury is to avoid them in the first place, and to increase your chances of doing so focus on improving your flexibility through stretching, refining your form with drills and learning to listen to your body to avoid overtraining.

General Advice

Running injuries are strange animals. Many will dehabilitate you enough so that you're unable to run and feel hurt, but can continue on with your daily life just fine. Others will make it painful (if not impossible) to walk. The natural approach for many, basing their knowledge on non-running injuries, is to see the family doctor. Unfortunately, most family doctors are not well-equipped to deal with running injuries and know little about active recovery. Many will tell you to take a certain amount of time (usually 6-8 weeks) off of running completely with the hope that your injuries will get better.

This isn't a good appoach. It may sometimes work initially, but it doesn't address the cause of your problem, which means that after you've waited those many weeks, when you start running again you're likely to get injured again. Instead, find a health professional that is knowledgeable about running injuries who can help you develop a plan of active recovery. This person does not necessarily have to be a medical doctor. Often, podiatrists, physical therapists, chiropractors, and even massage therapists can offer much more helpful advice if they are or have worked a lot with runners.

Your rehabilitation program should focus on discovering the underlying problem that caused you to get injured in the first place and on developing a plan to help prevent such injuries in the future. For example, if have knee pain, it's possible that this is the result of quads that are too tight. A helpful program in this case could involve massage to relax the tightened muscles in the quads, followed by preventative measures to help ensure the problem doesn't reoccur. Such measures may include exercises designed to increase the flexibility of the effected region (such as quad stretches) and, perhaps, a strength program for the quads to help them become strong enough so they are less likely to lock up.

Common Running Injuries and Bio-Mechanical Problems

• Achilles Tendonitis
• Ankle Sprains
• Athlete's Foot
• Blisters
• Bursitis
• Groin Pull
• Heel Spurs
• Iliotibial Band Friction Syndrome
• Knee Problems (Runner's Knee)
• Plantar Fasciitis
• Plantar Warts
• Overpronation
• Shin Splints
• Stress Fracture

Treatments

• Ice
• Heat
• NSAIDs (Drugs that reduce swelling like Ibuprofen)
• Stretching