Doc On The Run Podcast

If you are reading this because you are researching Achilles tendinosis, I'm sorry.   Achilles tendinosis is one of the worst injuries a runner can get.    Tendinosis is a serious problem and must be treated aggressively.   It is helpful to understand what you really need to do. You also need to understand Achilles tendinosis treatments doctors often recommend, which you might want to avoid.    To...

One of the things that's really important is that you really have to think about what it takes to ramp up without getting injured, and that requires tracking and paying attention to everything. I'm going to let you listen in on a recording from an actual live session in the Injured Runner's Aid Station explaining these keys to ramping up and running without getting reinjured, while using the advan...

The reality is, there are only two kinds of runners that I think really need a fracture walking boot for plantar fasciitis. The runners who don't mind losing all their running fitness and the other group of runners who really need a fracture walking boot for plantar fasciitis are those that basically assume they have the wrong diagnosis. Which kind of runners really do need a fracture walking boot...

One of the worst things when you're an injured runner is to stop taking action.  Think about what would happen if you did this with a marathon. If you were to sign up for a race and you didn't do anything to actually gain fitness in preparation for that event, would you expecto to do well? It blows me away when I see injured runners who have spent years in disciplined training, yet then when they...

A great question I got from someone recently who had a plantar plate injury and the toe was a little bit crooked. His question was, "Do I really need to have surgery if my toe is crooked? Is that a good indicator of whether or not I need plantar plate surgery just because the toe is sitting out of position a little bit?" I thought it might be helpful to explain when it might actually be necessary...

Plantar fasciitis is one of the most common causes of heel pain and it's also one of the most common reasons people actually go to the podiatrist. The fastest way to get it to calm down is to reduce the stress and strain to the plantar fascia ligament so that it'll actually heal. So if you're going to try to run, you have to do something to reduce the stress and strain to the plantar fascia ligame...

I do lots of running injury second opinions and I do most of those over webcam. Sometimes I do them over phone, but webcam's way better because I can see you, we can talk, I can show you some stuff on screen, share if I need to, and I can look at stuff that you have that might be really useful for me to help you figure out what's going on. Whether you're seeing me for a webcam visit or if you're s...

If you are a runner with a plantar plate sprain, you may be really frustrated.  Unfortunately, plantar plate sprains are difficult injuries to get better quickly. One key is to make sure it doesn't come back once you're running.  When I do second opinions for runners with plantar plate sprains, they ask...Should I have a cortisone injection? The short answer is there are only two times when it mak...

Faith and doubt are both beliefs. If you're taking action to maintain your running fitness, you have faith you're going to get better. If you're doing nothing to maintain your running fitness it's because you have doubt. But don't let this example convince you that there is only one way to decide whether or not you can do something to maintain your running fitness. No matter what the specific inju...

Is resting overrated for runners? Well, the short answer is yes and no but I want you to think about something. If it's true in training, then it must be true in over training injury recovery and whenever I say this, truthfully like most doctors if I'm speaking at a conference, they kind of cross their arms and glare at me and a lot of runners scratch their heads when I say that. But it is true an...

This episode actually comes from Eryn and she's somebody who was listening to the Doc On The Run podcast and then sent in a question. She said that she was 10 weeks out after getting a dancer's fracture in the fifth metatarsal while she was trying to qualify for Boston and getting ready. What she said is, "I'm one week in using my EXOGEN bone stimulator one time a day for 20 minutes. I heard you s...

All day long I talk to injured runners and help them figure out what they could be doing differently to get back to running as quickly as possible. I have realized is that the majority of injured runners are choosing, or have been told by a doctor, to follow one of four different running injury recovery strategies.  Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we're talking about the 4 strategies for runn...

In today’s podcast we have Patrick from the Running Lean Podcast here on the show, and you’re going to love this episode. Patrick McGilvray is a podcast host, Licensed Primary Sports Nutritionist, NASN Certified Personal Trainer, UESCA Certified Running Coach, Master Life & Success Coach, experienced marathoner and ultrarunner, and The Weight Loss Coach for Runners. Patrick helps runners properly...

I was just on a call with a guy who signed up for the Runner’s Aid Station and one of the things we were talking about is he had noticed that while he was doing some specific exercise I gave him to restore some of the balance to actually make him a little more stable and more efficient. He noticed he was getting a lot of soreness in his leg. He was actually explaining what he was getting in terms...

What exactly is primary repair of the planter plate? Well, that's a surgery where we actually go in and sew it back together. We fix it. We repair it. We do something to actually make it strong and hopefully heal again, so you can get back to running. But we're going to talk about three different methods for actually doing that and some of them are kind of similar. They're different approaches and...

When other doctors ask me what I do, I tell them rather simply I help runners figure out how to stay fit, hang onto their running fitness and get back to running as quickly as possible. The other day I was talking to a woman, who wanted my help and wanted to schedule a consultation, and she committed what I call the cardinal sin of runner-self-criticism. She said, “I know you only work with runner...

I have talked about this before in other episodes where you basically have four kinds of structures that you could consider having surgery on. You could have bone surgery, you could have ligament surgery, tendon surgery, or joint surgery and of course, when you have an injury to only the ligament, the plantar plate ligament, you might be wondering why in the world would the doctor want to do surge...

The worst runner to call me for a second opinion is someone who has been in a fracture walking boot or not running for 12 weeks or so. Why is that so bad? Well, they're extremely aggravated. They've seen at least one doctor, probably a bunch of times. They've probably had several x-rays. They've been waiting and waiting but they're not getting better and they're very upset about that. Today on the...

If you are a runner and you're thinking about surgery, you're probably maybe thinking about a second opinion, but maybe just doing your initial research, but some doctor has probably already suggested the idea of surgery to you. This is one of the four categories is tendon surgery and we're going to talk a little bit about that, about what it means, what tendon is actually operated on and what the...

In this episode we're talking about stress fractures and we're talking about what happens when you as a runner, wished something to be true and it's not a fact. It's really important that you understand this. Some of the wishes are things like, well, I want to run. The second one is I don't want there to be a crack on my x-ray. Some facts are, well, my podiatrist took an x-ray and there was no cra...

In today’s podcast we're talking about two different joint surgeries that are commonly performed as a component of plantar plate repair in injured runners. This is a really important thing to understand. There's two different kind of procedures. They both have different risks and benefits, and we're going to talk briefly about them so you at least know what they are. So if your doctor tries to sel...

In today’s episode we're talking about bias and bias, of course, is where somebody is already kind of made up their mind about what should be going on with you. They're biased, they've got a slanted opinion and that opinion is based on something other are than exactly what is going on with you. When you get a second opinion, bias is the worst possible thing, because it's very difficult for a docto...

In today’s episode we're talking about the four classes of procedures that affect four different anatomic structures in your foot when you have a plantar plate injury. I think t's really helpful if you're really frustrated, you're really demoralized and you're in this very vulnerable place where it'd be easy for a doctor to talk you into surgery without you really understanding what's going on. Th...

I get questions all the time, daily almost, where somebody will send me a message and they'll say, "Well, I saw a doctor and they said I had this injury, and they said that I couldn't run for six weeks. Would you let me run?" Well, the answer is no. There's a reason doctors don't give you permission to run, and there are really four ways that you can tell, ways you can get permission. I think it's...

A couple of years ago Martha was on the podcast talking about how hip arthritis has impacted her running and how she has been able to gain a different perspective on her running goals. She is the host of the Martha Runs The World Podcast. In this episode are talking about some basic principles and strategies for resuming running after surgery or a major over-training injury. Today on the Doc On th...