Physical Therapy
Physical therapy for runners and athletes should be essential, not an afterthought.
Your physical therapist will help you navigate chronic or acute running injuries, help you decrease risk for injury and can help improve your overall performance. We don't want you to stop running if you don't have to, we want to help you keep running and doing what you love!
Frequently Asked Questions
If you have never been to physical therapy or if you haven't seen us you might have questions. Hopefully we have the answers! If you don't see your question here, please give us a call or email us so we can help!
What is physical therapy for runners?
Physical therapy for runners focuses on identifying d addressing the factors that influence how runners load tissues, move, and adapt to training. This includes strength, neuromuscular control, running mechanics, training history, iand the runner’s relationship with pain. The goal is not just pain relief, but a confident and sustainable return to running.
Do runners need physical therapy if they can still run?
Yes. Many runners continue running through their pain, often modifying mileage, pace, or terrain. Just because you can run doesn't mean you don't need help. Physical therapy can help identify the cause of your pain, decreased performance of chronic injuries. We can identify early warning signs, help you improve tissue capacity, and reduce the risk of injuries becoming chronic or recurring even if running is still possible. Listen, we don't want you to stop running either, so let us help you keep moving.
Do you treat people who don't run?
Absolutely! We often see whole families and neighbors of our clients regardless if they are runners or not. Both of our clinics see all orthopedic and sports related injuries in addition to runner injuries. We even treat vestibular cases such as BPPV and pelvic floor dysfunction. Our Serenbe location is more general orthopedics and sports and our Atlanta location is where our runners clinic is located.
What is dry needling and why is it used for running injuries?
Trigger point dry needling involves inserting a thin filament needle into muscle tissue associated with pain or altered activation. For runners, it may help reduce persistent muscle tightness, improve muscle coordination, and address referred pain patterns. Dry needling is most effective when combined with strength and movement retraining.
How does manual therapy help runners?
Manual therapy are a hands-on techniques used to reduce pain, improve joint and soft tissue mobility, and calm an overactive nervous system. Manual therapy includes joint manipulation, soft tissue mobility, massage, trigger point release, visceral manipulation and more. For runners, manual therapy can create short-term improvements that make it easier to retrain movement patterns and tolerate progressive loading.
What is Bloodflow Restriction Training (BRF) and is it safe for runners?
Blood flow restriction (BFR) training uses specialized equipment to partially restrict blood flow during low-load exercise. It is great for tendonopathies, chronic injuries and in conjunction with PRP.It allows runners to improve strength and muscle capacity without heavy loading. When applied by trained clinicians, BFR is a safe and effective tool for runners recovering from injury or returning to training. Think of BRF as allowing you to load the tissue as if you are doping a one rep max while protecting the healing tissue.
Does physical therapy for runners include running gait analysis?
Yes. We us running gait analysis as part of our evaluation and treatment with all our running clients. Running gait analysis is often used to understand how a runner moves, how forces are distributed, and how movement patterns may relate to pain or injury. This information helps guide strength training, movement retraining, and return-to-run planning.
What services do you offer?
We have running gait analysis, trigger point dry needling, manual therapy, bloodflow restriction training (BFR). We teach strength training, mobility and neuromuscular re-education and running drills. We also have onsite dietitians, strength training workshops and starting in February massage therapy.