Why "Wait and See" Won’t Fix Your Running Injury (And What Actually Works)
It’s a story we hear almost every day at Tempo Physical Therapy & Performance.
You feel a sharp pain in your Achilles or a dull ache in your knee during a run through Riverside Park. You stop running. You decide to be "smart" about it. You take two weeks off. You ice it. You wait.
The pain goes away. You feel great! But the moment you lace up for your first 3-mile run back, the pain returns and often worse than before.
Why does this happen? If rest is supposed to heal you, why do you feel stuck in this endless cycle of run, get hurt, rest, repeat?
The answer lies in how your body handles load and why "waiting and see" is often the worst strategy for a running injury.
The Science: Why Rest Makes You Weaker
The old advice of R.I.C.E. (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) is outdated for overuse injuries that Atlanta runners find themselves dealing with. While rest stops the pain, it also stops the tissue from staying strong.
When you stop running completely, two things happen:
The Pain Vanishes: The inflammation subsides, fooling you into thinking the injury is healed.
The Tissue Weakens: Your tendons, muscles, and bones lose their tolerance for impact.
Think of it like a bank account. Running requires a $100 balance of strength. Your injury dropped your balance to $80. If you just rest on the couch for two weeks, your "balance" doesn't go back up to $100; it drops to $60 because of deconditioning. When you try to run again (spending $100), you are now overdrafted by $40 instead of $20.
Rest reduces your tissue load capacity. It lowers the ceiling of what your body can handle, making you more susceptible to injury, not less. This is the trap that most Atlanta runners find themselves in.
"Just Rest" Doesn't Fix the Root Cause
Pain is rarely the problem; pain is the alarm. Resting turns off the alarm, but it doesn't put out the fire.
If you are dealing with common running injuries like runner’s knee, Achilles tendonitis, or plantar fasciitis, "resting" does not fix the biomechanical issues that caused the injury in the first place, such as:
Running mechanics: Overstriding that puts excessive braking force on your joints.
Muscle weakness: Glutes that aren't coordinating to stabilize your hips.
Joint stiffness: Ankle restrictions that force your knee to twist.
Training error: Jumping into too much, too fast which increases running injury risk.
If you don't address why you got hurt, the injury will be waiting for you the second you start running again.
The Solution: Finding a Running Specialized PT
At Tempo Physical Therapy & Performance, we believe in active recovery. For runners, movement isn't just exercise; it is medicine. We focus on a strength based approach to your rehab with the goal of keeping you running.
Your body senses load. When you apply the right amount of load to an injured tendon or muscle, it stimulates the process responsible for making the tissue stronger. That’s the key!
Here is what actually works to fix running injuries for good:
1. Find Your "Sweet Spot" (The Load Management Zone)
You don’t want to stop running and we don't want you to stop running either! We want you to find the level of running you can tolerate without flaring up symptoms. This might mean:
Replacing your easy run with a cross training day.
Reducing your volume by 50% rather than 100%.
Running on flat trails at Cochran Shoals instead of hilly pavement.
This keeps your tissues active and strong while avoiding the "danger zone" of overload.
2. Progressive Loading (Strength Training)
You cannot run away from weakness. To fix a tendon issue, you must load it heavy and slow. Getting this wrong can add weeks to your running injury recovery timeline.
For Achilles pain: We might prescribe heavy, slow calf raises.
For Knee pain: We focus on heavy squats and split squats to build quad and glute tolerance.
3. Gait Retraining
Sometimes, small tweaks make a massive difference. Increasing your cadence (steps per minute) by just 5-10% can reduce the load on your knees and hips significantly. Our 3D running gait analysis pairs video capture with a force sensor to spot inefficiencies that the naked eye misses.
Learn more about our 3D Running Gait Analysis
4. Looking Beyond the Pain
The biggest benefit of working with a running physical therapist at our Sandy Springs clinic is that we understand all things running! We talk about your injury history, your training schedule and mileage build, your running shoe rotation and so much more. All of these play a role in your running injury and a running physical therapist can help to put the pieces together for you.
Stop Waiting, Start Healing
If you have been told to "just stop running" or “ice it” by a general practitioner or well-meaning friend, you might need a second opinion from a running phyiscal therapist who understands the demands of the sport.
You don't have to choose between running through pain or quitting completely. There is a middle ground: a proactive, science-based approach that keeps you moving while you heal.
Ready to break the running injury cycle?
If you’re an Atlanta runner who’s tired of the "Rest and Reinjury" loop, let’s get to the root of the problem.
Tempo Physical Therapy & Performance is Sandy Springs’ leading running physical therapy clinic helping runners get back to running stronger, faster and injury free. Book a free consultation call with us to get started on your comeback!
