Whether you're a daily runner or get out once or twice a week, this exercise is incredibly important for your overall health, including your physical and mental well-being.
So, if you count yourself among the millions of Americans who run, you also need to know about running injuries, which affect at least half of runners yearly.
As our name suggests, our focus at Neuhaus Foot and Ankle is on feet and ankles. We extend this focus up to your lower legs, especially when it comes to sports injuries. In the following blog post, our team highlights common running injuries we see at our practice.
Let’s start with a common overuse injury many runners face — shin splints. In fact, shin splints develop in up to 20% of runners at some point.
Shin splints lead to pain along the inner edge of your shinbone, where your posterior tibialis muscles attach to your tibia. With repetitive use, these areas can become overworked, which leads to pain and inflammation along the length of your shinbone.
This discomfort can occur while you run or afterward, and our patients describe the pain as everything from sharp and burning to dull and achy.
Moving down from your shin, your ankles are the next area under threat when you run. Granted, ankle sprains are one of the most common musculoskeletal injuries — you can sprain an ankle stepping out of the car just as much as while you run.
Still, runners tend to place more pressure on these significant joints and navigate terrain that can lead to more opportunities for ankle twists.
Also in the overuse category are stress fractures — small breaks in the bones that develop on the heels of repetition and overuse. Stress fractures most often develop in the shin bone (tibia) and the thin metatarsal bones in your feet.
As for symptoms, pain takes center stage when it comes to stress fractures, especially when placing any pressure on the area near the injury.
Rounding out common injuries in runners is plantar fasciitis, which describes damage and inflammation in the tissues that provide support for the arches in your feet — your plantar fascia.
Plantar fasciitis is common among runners who change their routines or their running surfaces. Unfortunately, it can be very painful, especially in the morning when you take your first steps.
The takeaway is that you should come to see us at the first signs of pain in your feet, ankles, or shins. The conditions we described can worsen over time, making them more challenging to treat the longer they go unaddressed.
Not to mention, it’s important to get the correct diagnosis because some of these conditions can overlap when it comes to symptoms. For example, shin splints can feel the same as a stress fracture in your shinbone, but how we treat those two conditions is quite different.
So, if you want to stay active and run, act quickly when you literally run into pain. For expert diagnosis and treatment of running injuries, please contact one of our 18 locations in Tennessee to schedule an appointment with one of our sports injury specialists today.
