Doc On The Run Podcast

Today I was out on a run and it was a great day. I was running in the sun and I was just trying to think about like what are the things that really slow runners down in terms of healing because the whole key with training efficiently is to avoid an overtraining injury and to really train as hard as possible, to do as much tissue damage as possible and then rebuild that tissue before you do your ne...

An MRI is an interesting diagnostic tool and we often think that an MRI is the best thing to show you what’s going on inside your body when we suspect you have some kind of injury and your doctors have a difficult time making a diagnosis. But the truth is there are two really good reasons runners shouldn’t just jump to an MRI and try to get an answer when they’re injured we’re going to talk about...

In this podcast episode we’re talking about sub-fibular impingement syndrome. Why do runners get sub-fibular impingement syndrome? How can you tell if you have sub-fibular impingement syndrome?  That may sound confusing to you but I am going to explain it. I’m going to talk about what this condition is, the signs and symptoms, what you can do about it.  

What is sinus tarsi syndrome? I mean it sounds like a complicated name but it’s not really a complicated condition. The “sinus” means basically like a tube or a passageway and “tarsi” refers to the rear foot bones in your foot. So the tarsal bones are the big bone in your rear foot like the calcaneus heel bone or the talus that sits on top of the heel bone and sits underneath your tibia and your a...

Why runners get extensor tenosynovitis? Basically what happens is that you get this problem from a number of things. The most common thing is overuse. When you get inflammation of the tendon sheath injury it’s usually because you work the tendons too hard.  But with the extensor tendons, it really doesn't happen that much unless you do a lot to hill repeats. But it’s not the tendons that get injur...

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast we’re talking about why doctors misdiagnose runners. All I do is talk to runners who are injured and want to run and ninety nine percent of the time when a runner calls me for advice is because they aren’t getting better and they want a second opinion. Well much of the time the runner has been misdiagnosed. If you don't have the right diagnosis, you will be doin...

I spend a lot of time talking to runners who have metatarsal stress fractures. Let’s face it, they’re common. And a metatarsal stress fracture may be one of the most disruptive injuries to you as a runner can encounter. The reason metatarsal stress fractures are so worrisome to you is that most doctors will tell you it takes six weeks for bone to heal. And whether or not that’s actually true is en...

Let’s Face it…Crutches Suck! It’s still hard for me to believe that the same crutches, the same design that doctors hand out to patients today are more or less the same kind of crutches handed out to injured soldiers during the Civil War. And although crutches are truly terrible, they can be a useful treatment to help any injured runner heal faster. But you as a runner have to understand there’s a...

Yesterday I was talking to my sister, who is of course, also a marathon runner.  She has been running marathons way longer than me and she is always fit. She runs in the morning and then swims later in the day. Swimming is a great way to cross train, supplement your aerobic fitness, strengthen your core fitness and frankly stay cool and relax in the summer. But I got an email from a runner who had...

I actually did some research recently in preparation for a presentation I was going to be giving on running injuries at the International Foot & Ankle Foundation medical conference in Seattle. When I went to Medline, which is the search engine that catalogs medical research articles for the National Center for Biotechnology Information, I entered the search terms “running” and “injury.” That searc...

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast we’re talking with Christiann Arbini about injury, recovery and what it takes to bounce back to national championship racing after a doctor told her she was done. For years I’ve been saying you should fire your doctor when they try to rob you of hope and Christiann was a great example of how are you can succeed even if the conventional medical wisdom is not real...

A plantar plate sprain is an overstretched, possibly even partially ripped ligament on the bottom of one your little toe joints in the ball of the foot. When you get a plantar plate sprain, there are really 3 issues: Inflammation Tissue damage Stress preventing healing You have to address all three if you really want to get better quickly and get back to running. Today on the Doc On The Run podcas...

Are you recovering at 100% capacity? Are you doing truly everything you can to maximize your capacity for healing after your workouts? If you’re not, you’re wasting a lot of time when you’re training. On Friday I was lecturing at the International Foot and Ankle Foundation meeting in Seattle. This is a medical conference where foot and ankle surgeons, podiatrists and sports medicine physicians go...

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast we are talking about how a runner can heal a stress fracture. When you get a stress fracture, there are really 3 issues: Inflammation Tissue damage Too much stress preventing healing You have to address all three if you really want to get better quickly and get back to running.

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast we’re talking about whether or not you should run when you have a stress fracture in the heel bone. The first thing to think about is like what is a stress fracture in the heel bone. The heel bone is an irregular bone. It’s an odd shape. It’s not tubular. It’s not square. It’s very thin on the outside and it’s sort of squishy on the inside. It’s kind of like a s...

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we’re going to talk about whether or not you can run with a partial rupture of the plantar fascia. Can I run my race if I have a partial rupture of the plantar fascia? Well that’s a question I’ve got in a number of times from runners who’ve been to the doctor, they thought they have plantar fasciitis, they were told they had a partial rupture or a tear in the p...

That may seem like a silly thing like you think if you’re wearing a fracture walking boot, there’s no way you're going to run a hundred miles. But there is a patient I just had a consultation with yesterday on the phone and we were talking about this because she's actually signed up for a one hundred miles trail race, she wants to do this ultramarathon and she's having a problem. The task is to fi...

Stress fractures are extremely common. But first thing is that if you’re going to figure out how to run the race, if you should run the race, whether or not it’s a good idea to run a race, you have to really understand what really is metatarsal stress fracture. Doctors want to put everybody in the same little bucket of “You have a metatarsal stress fracture. You can’t run.”  That’s not true at all...

Can I run my race if I think I have plantar fasciitis? That’s a good question. In this session what we are going to talk about is whether or not you can or should run if you think you have plantar fasciitis. A lot of doctors tell you stop running if you have plantar fasciitis. Well, the idea is that you’re stressing the plantar fascia when you’re walking on it and of course when you’re running.  T...

Today on the doc on the run podcast we’re talking with Patrick about how to stay on track when you see a doctor or physical therapist and make sure that they focus on your running goals. The main reason I wanted to have him on the podcast today is he actually had this experience with physical therapy that can help people understand how to better get your physical therapists and doctors more on tra...

One of the million dollar questions I get from runners is whether or not you can run when you have this specific injury. Just today I was on a remote consultation call on Skype with a runner who is an ultramarathoner. He is training for a huge trail race in the Dolomites and he wants to be able to run. Well it turns out that he got a little bit peroneal tendonitis, he got some pain and swelling ar...

I think when a doctor tells a runner to quit running it doesn’t make any more sense than telling an accountant to quit working with numbers. Running is what we do. And running should be the goal. You have to work with a doctor who will help you get back to running. And no matter where you are, you should be able to find a doctor who will help you heal AND get back to running. I talk to runners all...

Healing takes time. The longer you take to recover the more fitness you’re going to lose. But when you’re an injured runner the less time you spend healing the sooner you are going back to running. So we all want to heal as quickly as possible. When doing virtual doctor visit consultations with patients over the phone or via webcam, just about every patient who comes to me for running injury advic...

If you are a runner with plantar fasciitis, you don't need to watch hundreds of different videos to get better. You just have to do some simple things at home consistently and your heel pain will go away. If you do the right things, but you’re not getting better, then the chances are good you probably don't have plantar fasciitis and have been misdiagnosed. Runners are so frequently misdiagnosed w...

Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast we’re talking about the only three steps runners need to heal plantar fasciitis. You don’t need to watch a hundred of different videos to get better. If you do these three things and you really have plantar fasciitis you should start getting better. In this episode we’re going to talk about the only three treatments needed to heal plantar fasciitis in almost eve...