Modern Physical Therapy For Runners, By Runners
Hello, and welcome to The Run RX blog! While this platform will eventually be used to provide lots of running exercise ideas, info and educational material from a Doctor of Physical Therapy and trainer, for our first blog I wanted to share a little about The Run Rx and how we can help running injuries and improve running performance.
Who is the Modern Athlete?
A modern athlete is someone who is active, and motivated to keep their body healthy and moving at it’s peak capacity. This includes everyone from professional athletes, aspiring professional athletes, to weekend warriors and young budding high school athletes. We want to help you perform at your highest level in whatever you do, across the lifespan. Unfortunately, the standard healthcare model can be difficult to navigate through the inevitable ups and downs of an active lifestyle.
At The Run Rx we have the flexibility of being in a fitness setting with strength and conditioning as well as physical therapy for runners under one roof, provided by the same clinician. This allows for continuity through the cycle of training and life with someone who knows you and your history. Whether you are feeling great and looking to train for your next marathon, working hard to return from acute running injury or in endless rut of chronic knee pain keeping you from running. You have the ability to utilize us wherever we fit in your toolbox. I’m here as your tool to help you continue to train and perform.
Be an Educated Health & Fitness Consumer
Did you know Massachusetts has direct access to care? That means our running physical therapists can be your point of entry for healthcare for that runners knee, achilles tendonitis or plantar fasciitis without a referral from your doctor. You can end the cycle of going from one doctor to the next, only before ending up where you need to be after pain has gotten worse. Most PCP or ortho specialist visits are usually very short and infrequent. The full sessions spent more regularly with a running PT and driven by our running gait analysis often reveal more about what is going on, or even send us in a different direction completely from initial diagnosis as we naturally discover patterns to your movement and pain. If after evaluation we feel it’s important you see a doc then we can send you, but most of the time PT is where you end up. Think of us as your primary care provider for orthopedic pain.
Gait Retraining and How We're Different
If you’ve had someone analyze your gait and simply give you a few corrective exercises before sending you on your way, you’re falling way short if you’re looking to make true change. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as just isolated strengthening of certain muscles we find to be weak. The principle of specificity states that sports training should be relevant and appropriate to the sport for which the individual is training in order to produce the desired effect. In short, you have to train running form specifically to actually make change.
At The Run RX, following a your running gait analysis, if we deem it would be beneficial, we will work together with over-treadmill live coaching to retrain your running forn to reduce risk of injury and improve performance. This is also reinforced with off-treadmill exercises for running and strength training individualized to you and your goals as part of your session to keep you healthy and performing at your best.
