Physical Therapy for Runners: Improving Performance and Endurance

Whether you are a professional athlete or running is just your favourite pastime, you must understand the importance of performance and endurance. You need these components of running to achieve your running goals, avoid fatigue, and prevent injuries that may stop you from running ever again. However, factors like injuries and fatigue can also affect your performance and endurance. While your performance dictates how effective your running is, your endurance determines how long you can sustain your performance. Therefore, you may need physical therapy as a runner trying to improve performance and endurance.

As a runner, your performance and endurance depend on your biomechanics, muscular strength, flexibility, proneness to injury, etc. Physical therapy can help to improve your performance and endurance by addressing your biomechanics and other key factors. Therefore, this article will explain how physical therapy at Ironhorse Physical Therapy & Pilates can help runners achieve optimal performance and sustain it for long-term success. 

What Does Physical Therapy for Runners Entail?

Physical therapy for runners is sports therapy. Therefore, it may involve slightly different components to general physical therapy. The following are some of the most common components of physical therapy for runners:

Tailored Exercise Plans

Your physical therapist develops tailored exercise plans for you. These plans strengthen the injured muscles and help your body heal correctly.

Pain Reduction Techniques

Your physical therapist uses hands-on techniques, such as massage and stretching, along with ice, heat, or electrical stimulation, to reduce pain and inflammation.

Movement Assessment

Sometimes, how you move contributes to the injury. Physical therapists analyze your biomechanics and gait and teach you proper running and exercising techniques.

Besides aiding your recovery, physical therapy also aims to prevent future injuries. Here’s how:

Strengthening Exercises

A physical therapist can recommend strengthening activities that focus on legs, hips, and core to ensure your body can withstand the stresses of running.

Flexibility and Stretching Exercises

Tight muscles pull the body out of alignment and cause pain. Therefore, a physical therapist will show you safe stretching routines to keep your muscles loose and ready for running.

Gait Analysis

Physical therapists conduct something called a "gait analysis." They watch how you run and, if anything appears to be off, they help correct poor movements. Your therapist will also teach you the proper running movements to reduce the risk of re-injury.

Balance and Coordination

Physical therapists recommend exercises that improve balance and coordination. Without balance, runners are unstable and susceptible to injuries. Your therapist will help you train your body to adapt to uneven surfaces, sudden stops and turns, or anything else that can arise while running.

Education

In addition, your therapist will teach you how to select appropriate running shoes, how to warm up properly, and how often you should train to avoid injury..

Besides recovery, physical therapy for runners is also used for injury prevention. Methods commonly used include:

Stretching Routines

A therapist shows dynamic stretches for warm-up and static stretches for cooldown to ensure that muscles remain loose and ready.

Strength Exercises

Lunges, squats, step-ups, and other exercises strengthen the lower body musculature, stabilizing the knees, ankles, and hips.

Foam Rolling/Self Massage

Understanding how to foam roll or use other techniques can relieve muscle tautness and stave off soreness after running.

How Does Physical Therapy Improve Performance and Endurance in Runners?

Physical therapy addresses conditions that affect physical performance and overall physical health. Since running is a product of physical function, physical therapy can address problems that may affect a runner’s performance and endurance. The following explains how physical therapy can improve a runner’s performance and endurance:

Prevention of Injury

Injuries can limit a runner’s performance or even stop them from running altogether, due to the pain and damage they cause to body structures that facilitate movement. Therefore, physical therapy aims to prevent injury to maintain and subsequently improve performance and endurance in runners. 

Physical therapists perform strength and mobility assessments to detect muscular weakness, range of motion limitations, and other deficiencies that can put you at risk of injuries. After assessment, your physical therapist may recommend targeted exercises and other techniques to reinforce the identified vulnerable areas. If your physical therapist suspects that your running form/technique is wrong, they may perform a running gait analysis to detect even the most subtle abnormality and correct your form.

Pain Management and Recovery

Pain is a significant obstacle to your performance as a runner. In addition to limiting your physical ability to run, pain also impacts your mental capacity to continue running. However, physical therapy offers several non-invasive techniques to help you relieve and manage pain, ensuring that you can improve your endurance and performance. 

Manual therapy is one of the physical therapy’s non-invasive techniques. These are hands-on techniques, such as massage, soft tissue mobilization, joint manipulation, and myofascial release that help to improve blood circulation, reduce muscle tension, and restore your range of motion. Your physical therapist may also employ other modalities, such as heat and cold therapy, ultrasound therapy, dry needling, transcutaneous electrical stimulation (TENS), etc, to manage discomfort and inflammation. 

Improved Muscle Strength and Cardiovascular Efficiency

Stronger muscles can help you produce better performances while running. Therefore, your physical therapist may recommend strength training exercises to strengthen your muscles and core for better performances. To help you sustain these better performances, physical therapy improves your cardiovascular efficiency for endurance. Your physical therapist may recommend functional conditioning programs, breathing and pacing techniques, and other cardiovascular exercises to improve your ability to conserve energy and sustain speed over time.

Improved Biomechanical Function

Physical therapy can improve your biomechanical function by correcting muscle imbalances, retraining proper movement patterns, and improving core stabilization. This triggers changes in your running form that can ensure more efficient movement, leading to enhanced speed, endurance, and injury prevention. 

Faster Recovery

During recovery, the body repairs damaged tissues and ensures that you feel refreshed. However, several athletes rush their recovery due to tight schedules or their belief that they can only produce better performances by overtraining. As a result, physical therapy can help to reduce recovery duration to ensure that you can go back to running as soon as possible. 

Conclusion

If you experience problems with your performance and endurance as a professional athlete or someone that just enjoys running for fitness or recreational purpose, you should consider undergoing physical therapy at Ironhorse Physical Therapy & Pilates.