Most runners are one bad training week away from an injury they never saw coming, and the way they think about shoes, strength, and recovery is probably making that worse.

Dr. Drew Short specializes in working with runners at PhysioRoom, and his approach to running injury recovery starts somewhere most people wouldn’t expect: months back in an athlete’s training log. The culprit behind most injuries isn’t a single bad run. It’s accumulated load, under-fueling, or a strength gap that quietly grew until something gave out. When the mechanical picture looks clean, Drew digs deeper, sometimes all the way to blood work and nutritional consults. Multiple tendon issues flaring up in different parts of the body at once? That’s a systemic story, not a mechanical one.

The calf conversation is worth sitting with. Runners stretch it religiously and almost never strengthen it the way running actually demands. The soleus does significant work during each stride, but only when the knee is bent, which is almost never how people train it. A calf that always feels tight is probably asking for load, not length.

On the trail running vs. road running question, the differences go deeper than terrain. Strength demands, stability requirements, and pacing strategy all shift in ways that catch road runners off guard when they head onto the trails. And carbon-plated shoes? Both Drew and Dr. Ficks agree they have a place, but earning them matters more than buying them.

Quotes

• “The downside to under-fueling is you’re going to hit a brick wall. The downside to over-fueling is maybe a rumbly stomach…I’d rather be on that end of the spectrum.” (14:58 | Dr. Drew Short)
• “You might meet the rep scheme on a calf raise, but whenever you start making it more ballistic and you start using the tendon more, it doesn’t like that. The rate of fire is just a lot slower on that side.” (25:50 | Dr. Drew Short)
• “Stiffer tendons or more robust tendons — that’s just free energy. If you’re able to use that elasticity like a rubber band whenever you hit the ground, that’s less that the muscles are having to push off.” (33:19 | Dr. Drew Short)
• “If your calf always feels like it needs to be stretched, honestly, your tendon probably needs some load. You probably do need to be doing some heavy slow resistance through that tendon. Otherwise, you just keep stretching it all day every day.” (34:32 | Dr. Drew Short)
• “If I’m doing a long effort and I can still breathe just through my nose, I know I’m gonna be fine at hour three, hour four.” (48:26 | Dr. Drew Short)

Connect with Dr. Drew Short:
https://www.instagram.com/thenamesdrew/

SideKick Tool

Movemate: Award-Winning Active Standing Board

15% off Promo Code: DRA15

RAD Roller

Revogreen

HYDRAGUN 

Athletic Brewing

20% off: ANDREWF20

Connect with Physio Room:

Visit the Physio Room Website

Follow Physio Room on Instagram

Follow Physio Room on Facebook

Andrew’s Personal Instagram

Andrew’s Personal Facebook

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

The post 226. Fast Comes Last: Getting Back to Running the Right Way | Dr. Drew Short appeared first on Physio Room.

Running is a high-intensity sport—more than just putting one foot in front of the other, it’s about understanding mechanics, building strength, and managing stress on the body. In this episode, Dr. Andrew Fix is joined by Dr. Matt Silver, physical therapist and author of “Built to Run,” to discuss the common injuries runners face and the unique challenges of the sport. Pointing out running as a high-intensity activity—essentially a series of single-leg hops—they explore how this repetitive motion places significant stress on the body, often leading to injuries like runner’s knee, IT band syndrome, shin splints, and Achilles tendinopathy.

Dr. Silver shares his journey of overcoming running injuries and how it inspired his work at Alpha Project Phyzio & Performance, helping runners achieve longevity in their sport. He points out the important role of strength training in injury prevention, and debunks the myth that stretching alone can resolve running-related pain. Instead, he explains how strengthening muscles and tendons enhances their spring-like qualities, enabling better recoil and support during runs.

Join Dr. Fix and Dr. Silver’s discussion to gain insights that’ll indeed help you optimize your performance as a runner and stay injury-free.

Quotes

• “Once we understand that running is essentially a single-leg hop repeated over and over, it’s clear that it’s a jumping exercise—a high-intensity exercise. I can’t think of any other sport that involves as much single-leg jumping as running does.” (07:59 | Dr. Matt Silver)
• “We have to ensure we build strength and think of the muscles and Achilles as muscles and rubber bands. The Achilles acts like a spring—there needs to be a certain level of tension there. So, when we hit the end range, it can contract out of it, making us run more efficiently. If your tendons are loose, you’re going to have to work a lot harder to run.” (17:37 | Dr. Matt Silver)
• “Strength training is important—you’ll gain a lot of adaptation just from that alone. But something else that I think would really help runners is jump training. If we know running is essentially jumping, then we need to incorporate jump training into our routine. It’s not only great for becoming a more efficient runner and training your tendons to contract and relax the way we want them to, but it’s also fantastic for your bone health.” (20:24 | Dr. Matt Silver)
• “Before we even talk about how your foot’s hitting the ground, we need to address your running form. Shoe wear does play a role in this—if you’re wearing a shoe with a massively built-up heel, you’re probably going to heel strike more aggressively. But if you’re overstriding, that’s what we need to fix first before even discussing how your foot is hitting the ground.” (37:23 | Dr. Matt Silver)

Links

Connect with Dr. Matt Silver:

https://www.alphaprojectphyzio.com/built-to-run-book

https://www.instagram.com/alphaprojectphyzio/

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=running+rewired&hvadid=241596968295&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9028754&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=4347788781906826674&hvtargid=kwd-377142194578&hydadcr=22534_10353871&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_4ngqsthky4_e

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeVgsbB_TW4

SideKick Tool:

https://bit.ly/4a6CqJS

Movemate:
Award-Winning Active Standing Board

https://shorturl.at/egkA1

Promo Code: DRA15

15% off

RAD Roller:

http://radroller.refr.cc/drandrewfix

Revogreen

https://revogreen.co/drandrewfix

HYDRAGUN

https://bit.ly/43rAtnX

Athletic Brewing:

20% off: https://athleticbrewing.rfrl.co/vrmx8

20% off: ANDREWF20

Connect with Physio Room:

Website | https://physioroomco.com/

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/physioroomco/

Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/physioroomco

Andrew’s Personal Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/drandrewfix/

Andrew’s Personal Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/andrew.fix.9/

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

The post 151. Built to Run | Dr. Matt Silver appeared first on Physio Room.

Key Takeaways

• Use the first half of a marathon as a warm up, race slower than your goal race pace

• Runners can use strength training to restore damaged body tissue and build a more robust body

• All 3 macronutrients are important for runners, but protein is actually the most important

“People talk about hitting a wall. To me the wall just means that you ran dumb. You’ve been too fast and you have nothing left,” explains Tristan Mitchell, owner, manager, and coach at Lions Den SMP. Tristan has completed 24 marathons and has learned a lot about training for running since his first attempt at age 20. Today, he joins host Dr. Andrew Fix to discuss strategies for smarter marathon training.

Running for extended periods of time is very rough on the body because it is incredibly repetitive. In order to master the marathon without harming your body, it is important to train strategically. This means not only learning how to pace yourself properly throughout the race depending on its length, but also knowing how to fuel your body efficiently beforehand. People are quick to think of carbohydrates for runners, but protein is even more important as a building block for your body to function at its best. Additionally, adding in strength training can help restore the body tissues that have been damaged by the repetitive motions of running.

If you start off a marathon running your hardest, you will likely hit a wall pretty quickly. That’s why it is imperative to pace yourself and purposefully run slower than your race pace goal for the first half of the marathon before kicking it into high gear for the second half. Be sure to fuel up on lots of protein beforehand and consider adding strength training to your regimen to help your body become more robust.

Quotes

• “Learning how to negative split races was huge, and ever since then it’s something I’ve really worked at in the marathon and prided myself on. (20:20-20:29 | Tristan)

• “The way I always like to think about it is having these things that I can draw upon to elicit an adrenaline response, something that just fires me up. And I save these things for the second half of a marathon.” (21:51-22:05 | Tristan)

• “If you go out too hard, you simply burn up too much of your stored carbohydrates.” (33:00-33:06 | Tristan)

• “People talk about hitting a wall. To me the wall just means that you ran dumb. You’ve been too fast and you have nothing left.” (33:11-33:19 | Tristan)

• “When it comes to running, strength training builds a more robust body. It builds a body that can tolerate the demands of running training more effectively.” (49:25-49:38 | Tristan)

• “All three of the macronutrients are highly important aspects of a runner’s diet, protein, fat and carbohydrates. But I think that we must get runners to think through the lens of protein first, because it is the building block.” (1:05:41-1:05:59 | Tristan)

Links

Connect with Tristan Mitchell:

Website | ​​https://www.lionsdensmp.com/

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/lionsdensmp/?hl=en

Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/LionsDenSMP

Connect with Physio Room: 

Website | ​​https://physioroomco.com/

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/physioroomco/

Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/physioroomco

Andrew’s Personal Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/dr.andrewfix/

Andrew’s Personal Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/andrew.fix.9/

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

The post 65. Mastering the Marathon: Strategies for Smarter Training | Tristan Mitchell appeared first on Physio Room.