Running is one of the simplest forms of exercise and one of the most reliable ways to accumulate injury. Studies consistently show that between 50 and 70 percent of runners experience an injury serious enough to disrupt training in any given year. Most of those injuries are predictable, preventable, and fixable without stopping running entirely.
At Dynamic Sports Medicine, we treat runners at every level, from people training for their first 5K to competitive athletes pushing high weekly mileage. The pattern we see is consistent: injuries happen when load exceeds capacity, and the solution is almost never to stop running. It is to address the deficit and manage load intelligently.
Why Runners Get Injured
The vast majority of running injuries are overuse injuries. They develop over time when cumulative load exceeds the tissue’s ability to recover and adapt. The most common drivers:
The Most Common Running Injuries
IT band syndrome produces pain on the outside of the knee, typically during or after runs, and is driven by hip abductor weakness and poor pelvic control. It’s one of the most common running injuries and one of the most mismanaged, with stretching the IT band being a popular but largely ineffective approach.
Patellofemoral pain (runner’s knee) produces pain around or under the kneecap, often worsening on hills and stairs. It is driven by quad strength deficits, poor hip control, and sometimes foot pronation. It typically responds well to hip strengthening and load management.
Plantar fasciitis produces heel pain that’s worst with the first steps in the morning. It is driven by calf tightness, foot weakness, and training load errors. Progressive loading of the plantar fascia is the most evidence-backed treatment approach.
Shin splints (medial tibial stress syndrome) produce pain along the inner tibia, typically early in training cycles. They’re a stress reaction of the bone and surrounding periosteum. Load management, hip strengthening, and addressing foot mechanics are the key interventions.
Achilles tendinopathy produces pain at the back of the heel or along the Achilles tendon, typically worse after rest and at the start of runs. Like all tendinopathies, it responds best to progressive eccentric and heavy slow resistance loading, not rest or stretching.
Why “Run Less” Is Rarely the Answer
Reducing mileage may be appropriate in the short term to manage acute inflammation. But runners who stop training entirely lose fitness, lose load tolerance in the tissue, and often return to the same injury because they haven’t addressed the underlying cause.
The goal is to identify the structural deficit driving the injury, address it directly, and manage training load to stay in a range the tissue can tolerate during recovery. Most runners can maintain meaningful training volume throughout this process.
What DSM Does Differently
We assess running mechanics, hip and ankle strength, and the specific loading pattern of your injury. Treatment combines hands-on care, which may include dry needling, manual therapy, and shockwave therapy for chronic tendon issues, with a targeted strengthening program and training load guidance.
We don’t just treat the symptomatic tissue. We address why it was overloaded in the first place.
