Why Runners Need To Weight Train

It is common for runners to come into our clinic with complaints of low back, hip, knee or foot/ankle pain. For most of these athletes there was no trauma or known cause for their current symptoms. Many of these clients have been running for a long time and causally run over 10 miles per week and some over 50! So why do they have pain? More times than not weaknesses can be found in the runner’s hip muscles causing faulty movements at the low back, knee and ankle joints. Being evaluated by a physical therapist is a good start to determine where your flexibility and strength deficits are located and how to properly correct them. My favorite assessments to determine a runners leg strength are performing a single leg squat or a leg lowering movement off a block. In each of these movements a lot can be discovered by a skilled therapist as to where your biggest issues are. From there we can create a plan of care to keep you running while improving the areas of concern.