Blog 1: Everything Running
Part 1: Why Runners Get Injured (And How to Actually Prevent It)
Let me guess. You found running, you fell completely in love with it, you signed up for a race, you ramped up your training — and then something started hurting.
Sound familiar? You are not alone, and you are not unlucky. You are, statistically speaking, just a runner.
Research consistently shows that between 37 and 56 percent of recreational runners sustain an injury in any given year. That's not a niche problem — that's essentially a coin flip every twelve months. And yet, the majority of those injuries are not freak accidents. They are predictable, patterns-based, and — here's the good news — largely preventable.
As a chiropractor who works primarily with endurance athletes, and as a runner who has been on the wrong side of that coin flip more than once, this is a topic I care deeply about. Welcome to Part 1 of this sport specific blog called Everything Running!
Let's talk about why you keep getting hurt, and what to actually do about it.
The Real Culprits Behind Most Running Injuries
Here's something that might surprise you:
Most running injuries are not caused by running
They're caused by how you run, how much you run, how quickly you ramp up, and what you're not doing around your running (aka strength/cross training/recovery etc.). The act of putting one foot in front of the other is not the villain here. The training habits surrounding it often are.
The most common offenders in my practice — and in the research — fall into a handful of very predictable categories.
1. Too Much, Too Soon:
The 10% rule — increasing weekly mileage by no more than 10% per week — exists for a reason. Connective tissue (tendons, ligaments, cartilage) adapts to load significantly more slowly than cardiovascular fitness. This means your lungs feel ready long before your knees are.
A study in the Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy found that sudden spikes in training load were one of the strongest predictors of running injury across all levels of athlete.
2. Weak glutes:
I say this with love and clinical certainty: almost every runner I assess has glutes that are underperforming relative to what running demands of them. The glutes are the primary stabilizer of the hip and pelvis during the gait cycle. When they're not doing their job, the load cascades down the chain — into the IT band, the knee, the Achilles, the plantar fascia.
A lot of lower limb running injuries are hip problems wearing a disguise.
3. Inadequate recovery:
Running breaks tissue down. Recovery builds it back up, stronger.
If you're not giving your body enough time between hard efforts — or enough sleep, enough nutrition, enough easy days — you're essentially trying to renovate a house while someone else is knocking the walls down.
The research on sleep and injury risk is particularly striking: athletes sleeping fewer than eight hours per night have been shown to be 1.7 times more likely to sustain an injury than those sleeping eight or more.
4. Ignoring the warning signs:
Pain is your body's communication system. A little niggle that gets dismissed week after week has a way of becoming a full injury that sidelines you for months.
In my experience — both clinical and personal — the athletes who stay healthy long-term are not the toughest ones. They're the most honest ones.
The Most Common Running Injuries — And What's Really Behind Them
Runner's Knee (Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome, PFPS)
IT Band Syndrome
Shin Splints
Achilles tendinopathy
Plantar Fasciitis
While they each present differently and affect different structures, they share a common thread: they are overuse injuries driven by load that exceeds the body's current capacity to absorb it.
I had a front-row seat to shin splints in university, running track and pushing through pain I absolutely should not have been pushing through. Multiple practitioners told me I should stop running. I'm glad I found ones who helped me figure out why it was happening instead of just telling me to stop. That experience shaped how I approach injury prevention in my own patients today — the goal is never just to manage the symptom. It's to understand the load, fix the pattern, and build a body that can handle the demands you're asking of it.
What Injury Prevention Actually Looks Like
Injury prevention isn't a single intervention — it's a collection of habits that compound over time. Here's where to start.
Respect the easy days. Easy runs should be genuinely easy — conversational pace, relaxed effort, no ego. Research on polarized training models consistently shows that 75 to 80 percent of training volume should be performed at low intensity. Most recreational runners run too hard on easy days and too conservatively on hard days, which produces chronic fatigue without meaningful adaptation.
Strength train. Twice a week of targeted strength work — glutes, hips, single-leg stability, calf loading — is one of the highest-return investments a runner can make. A systematic review in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that strength training reduced overuse injury rates in runners by up to 50 percent. Fifty percent. That's not a small number.
Get assessed. One of the most valuable things you can do as a runner — especially if you've had recurring injuries — is have a movement assessment done by someone who understands running biomechanics. Understanding where your compensations are, which structures are under-loaded or over-loaded, and how your body is moving under fatigue gives you information you simply can't get from a generic training plan.
Treat maintenance as part of training. Regular chiropractic care, soft tissue work, and mobility sessions aren't just for when something goes wrong, they're how you make sure things don't go wrong in the first place.
The runners I see who stay healthiest year over year are the ones who treat their bodies proactively rather than reactively.
Up Next: Running Form & Biomechanics — Small Tweaks, Big Results
Now that we understand why runners get hurt and how to build a foundation that prevents it, it's time to zoom in on how you're actually moving. In Part 2 of Everything Running, we're diving into running form and biomechanics — what actually matters, what's mostly noise, and the small adjustments that can make a significant difference in both your injury risk and your performance. See you there.
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If you're a runner dealing with a recurring injury — or want to make sure you never have to — Dr. Keirstyn offers comprehensive movement assessments and treatment plans designed specifically for endurance athletes. Based in Oakville and available virtually, reach out to book your assessment today.
📍 Endurance Therapeutics | Oakville, Ontario
📞 905-288-7161