Performance
A physiotherapist maps common running injuries from recognition and professional care through exercises, rehabilitation, and renewed performance.
The author argues that runners don't get hurt simply because they run. They get hurt because of how they train, or because they neglect the supporting work that running depends on. On this view the cause sits in choices the runner can change.
Some injuries strike at a moment you can point to, like a sprained ankle. Others build up slowly. The author says the slow-building kind is far more common in runners, because thousands of identical strides magnify a problem that started out minor.
The body adapts to a given load by getting stronger, but once it has adjusted to the specific demands of running, strength levels off. The author warns that a runner who only runs is heading for the physio's table. Strengthening both the main driving muscles and the smaller stabilising ones makes overload far less likely.
When one muscle group fails to do its share, a neighbour takes over and gets overloaded. The author's example is weak buttock muscles leaving the hamstrings overworked until the hamstring tendon hurts. Imbalance between the left and right sides changes the running stride in the same way, and overuse injuries tend to appear on the weaker side.
The author names previous injuries as one of the two biggest causes of new ones, because so many runners return before they have fully recovered. Without the specific exercises and time rehabilitation needs, he says, an injury that feels better can come back within the first three runs and then be even harder to fix.
The author sees two main drivers of running injury: past injuries and getting older. Age can't be changed, so effort should go into the factor that can, which is properly rehabilitating old injuries.
The book offers runners ways to work out what is wrong themselves and treat minor aches. A reviewer singles out its clear signs for when it is time to see a professional. Self-care is meant to work alongside expert assessment, not replace it.
The author claims that about ten minutes a day of preventive and rehabilitation exercise can lift a runner's performance. Small, steady maintenance is presented as the route to progress, rather than big efforts made only after something breaks.
The author discusses when, and how, a runner should push back on well-meaning advice to stop running altogether, sometimes even from a family doctor. He frames runners as owners of their own training and rehabilitation, so their decisions should rest on specific assessment rather than a reflexive order to quit.