Navigating the journey of returning to run after an injury can feel like guesswork and frustration without professional guidance. That’s why embracing a Walk to Run Strong approach is essential—focusing on rebuilding strength, control, and confidence step by step. Here are some tips to keep in mind as you’re navigating this transition:

When should you initiate a walk to run program?

When it comes to returning to run after an injury, a clinician should be running you through strength, mobility, and movement pattern assessments. This takes out the guesswork of whether or not your key muscle groups and bones are ready for the loads of running, and gives you confidence in taking those first steps.

Along with strength and mobility assessments, a non-negotiable is: you have to walk before you can run. Before starting a walk to run, I’m looking for clients to be able to walk 45 minutes at a 3.2-3.5mph pace on rolling terrain.

Why the emphasis on walking?

One of the most common mistakes I see during this time frame (with both casual and competitive runners) is neglecting the walking aspect of a walk to run program. Rather than thinking about walk time as rest time, think of walk time as loading time. A lot more load is happening to your bones and tissues during walking than you may think. 

For example, studies have shown that walking puts the SAME loads on the achilles tendon as: 

• standing 1 leg heel raises
• high step ups
• a forward jump
• eccentric heel raises (the typical “2 up, 1 down” exercise)

The same study showed that walking puts even MORE load on the achilles tendon than:

• body weight squats
• lunges
• seated heel raises with 150% of your body weight

This makes walking a very important component of methodically adding more load to your body!

What about hills and speedwork?

Runners are antsy to get back to running and running fast. In Colorado, specifically, a lot of runners are dying to get back on the trails. As tempting as it is to jump back into these activities – these should actually come at the end of your walk to run program. Both hill work and speed work fall under the umbrella of “intensity” and should only be worked back into once endurance, frequency, and overall volume have met certain thresholds.

How do I use all of this extra time?

While you’re going through this process, you’ll likely be spending overall less time training than you would if you were healthy. Because of that, it is a great time to be working on other aspects of your mental and physical well-being. 

Here are some areas I tend to recommend on how to use the time:

• Look into other hobbies, or maybe pick back up some old hobbies that you’ve let fall to the wayside because of your busy training schedule.
• Dial in your nutrition. With a full week of work and training, putting mental energy into nutrition can just seem beyond your capacity. This is a great time to work on dialing in your nutrition and getting meal prep ideas in place, so that once you are back to full training – that’s one less thing you have to spend mental energy on.
• Work on breathwork and posture. Runners form often looks great for the first few minutes of running. Add in a little fatigue, and they soon start to slouch and gasp for air. The time spent working on walking is a great time to focus on your upright running posture and diaphragmatic breathwork.

Last tips:

Spend more time sitting than standing during the day…

• In the same way that walking puts more load on the achilles tendon than you may think, even just standing puts more load on your bones than you may expect. Eight hours of cumulative standing time per day can equal the same load on bone as running a marathon. So during this process, load your tissues with the walk to run program, then let them recover by taking a load off during the day.

Even if the run feels easy, finish the process…

• I’ll admit, a walk to run progression is not exciting. It’s not exciting on purpose, because it is a very calculated step by step progression in loading. Your cardio will come back much faster than your bone and tendon strength (even in Colorado). Chances are, you will get to the point later in the programming that the run feels easy and you want to skip stages. Because the tendons and bones take longer to adapt, don’t rush past, trust the process, and most importantly FINISH the process so that your body is fully prepared and you don’t have to backslide and take more time from training.

I hope that these tips have been helpful, and if you need guidance in these areas, don’t hesitate to come see our team to help you through the process!

Written by Dr. Drew Short – PT, DPT, CMFA | Physio Room

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