Treat running injury patients successfully and confidently

• Use your patient's pain history and symptom behaviour to guide your working diagnosis.
• Find their true load–capacity “tipping point”, so you can modify the right training variables without unnecessary rest.
• Map a full training week, including pace, hills, surfaces and recovery, so your advice fits the runner's real life.
• Screen sleep, fuelling, health and RED-S-related concerns, so hidden barriers to tissue recovery and bone health are not overlooked.
• Identify your patient's beliefs, worries and goals, so you can address these as you progress through rehab, your treatment stays relevant and meaningful, and your patients are more likely to engage with your rehab program.
• Explain why the injury developed without fragile or blaming language, so patients leave with confidence rather than fear.

By the end of this module, you'll have a clearer structure for your subjective assessment and a practical way to explain your findings. You'll learn how to uncover the factors that matter, and help your patient understand their injury and take an active role in recovery.

• Choose tests based on the subjective history, so you save time and gather information that will actually guide treatment.
• Observe alignment, muscle bulk and swelling, and identify whether it is relevant and evidence-based, or just normal structural variation.
• Assess ankle dorsiflexion, calf, hamstring, gluteal and quadriceps capacity, so exercise prescription matches your patient's needs.
• Analyse single-leg control and the effect of simple modifications, so you can find practical ways to improve painful tasks.
• Assess hopping and impact tolerance, so rehabilitation progresses from slower strength work towards the demands of running.
• Measure progress, so you and the patient can easily see the effectiveness of your treatment.

By the end of this module, you'll have a quick, accurate assessment you can use with all of your running injury patients, and adapt to the runner in front of you.

• Set up fast, reliable video analysis on a treadmill or outdoors, to fit it into a short treatment session.
• Use Tom's four-step method for assessing overall movement, foot strike, stride length, step rate and stride width, so your analysis stays systematic.
• Recognise common gait patterns that are associated with specific injuries, so you can investigate loads that may be relevant to pain.
• Assess and understand how foot strike and running speed influence gait, so you avoid one-size-fits-all advice about the “best” way to run.
• Use step-rate changes and simple external cues to alter load and assess the effect on symptoms, and only use the cues that help.
• Progress retraining into normal training, so improvements are more likely to continue beyond the clinic treadmill.
• Test, re-test and watch for unwanted effects, so a visually different gait is only retained when it provides a worthwhile benefit.
• Identify when gait retraining may support pain relief, rehabilitation or performance, and when another treatment priority should come first.
• Understand the evidence, so you can give patients accurate, evidence-informed guidance.

By the end of this module, you'll have a repeatable way to assess gait, know exactly what to look for, what to change, and how to decide whether gait retraining belongs in your patient's rehab plan.

• Choose the right training dose for strength, endurance or power, so your program produces the adaptation your runner actually needs.
• Load key muscle groups heavily enough to build capacity and resilience, instead of remaining permanently easy.
• Match exercises to your assessment findings and patient's running goals, so every program is individualised.
• Choose from practical calf, quad, gluteal, hamstring and whole-chain exercises, so you always have an option that suits the patient and available equipment.
• Progress range, load, speed and complexity, so each athlete advances progressively without flaring symptoms unnecessarily.
• Use clear external cues and smart exercise setup, so patients move well with fewer technical instructions.
• Schedule strength sessions around harder runs and recovery, so training supports performance rather than fatiguing your patient.
• Build towards power, plyometrics and running-specific circuits, so your athlete is prepared to run faster, climb hills and return to sport.

By the end of this module, you'll be able to build progressive strength and conditioning programs for your patients, and have the confidence to progress them beyond basic rehab.

• Assess pain, daily function, range, strength, control and impact tolerance, so you can make a safe, informed decision about readiness.
• Identify an objective, manageable running baseline, so patients can retain fitness, routine and enjoyment while they rehabilitate.
• Know when rest is necessary and cross-training can be used to maintain capacity and fitness.
• Progress frequency, duration, distance, pace and hills, so training load increases in a controlled way.
• Monitor pain during and after running, including next-day response, so you can adjust the plan before a minor flare becomes a setback.
• Use physical tests, psychological readiness and energy availability to gauge readiness for return to running.
• Troubleshoot marathon preparation and restore faster running, so the plan reaches the athlete's real performance goal.

By the end of this module, you'll have a practical process for planning and reviewing your patients' return to running. Case examples involving patellofemoral pain, medial tibial stress syndrome and persistent proximal hamstring tendinopathy will help you use the framework with different patient presentations.

• Explain tendinopathy to patients and build confidence rather than fear.
• Identify provocative load types, volume, intensity and frequency, so you can clearly guide your patient on specific activity modification, rather than simply “run less”.
• Alter your treatment for insertional tendinopathy, so exercises and daily activities avoid aggravating the tendon.
• Match isometrics, isotonic loading, heavy slow resistance, tendon neuroplastic training and other forms of loading, to irritability, capacity and patient preference.
• Adjust exercise range, load, speed and frequency, to continue to progress while minimising flare-ups.
• Use person-centred care that incorporates general health, metabolic factors, sleep and psychosocial barriers to improve your treatment outcomes.
• Decide whether to use adjuncts such as shockwave therapy.
• Grade and progress patients' return to running.

By the end of this module, you'll be able to tailor tendon rehabilitation to the patient in front of you, choose a starting load, clearly explain your treatment plan and adapt progression as your patient's symptoms and capacity improve.

• How location, pain patterns, morning stiffness, palpation and the windlass test inform diagnosis, so you can distinguish typical plantar fasciopathy from important alternatives.
• Which features in a patient's history suggest neural pain, fat-pad pain or a high-risk bone stress injury, so patients who need investigation or referral are identified early.
• How to modify running and daily load, so symptoms can settle without eliminating the activities they enjoy or need to perform.
• How specific calf and foot strengthening, stretching, range-of-motion work and kinetic-chain exercise can address individual impairments.
• When to use taping, orthoses or manual therapy for short-term support, to help patients engage with an active rehabilitation plan.
• When to include gait retraining and footwear changes to alter plantar fascia load.
• How to set realistic recovery expectations and when to refer on, so patients remain informed and involved.

By the end of this module, you'll have a practical, progressive plan for guiding patients from painful first steps back to valued walking, work and running.

• Recognise stress reactions and stress fractures, before they reach a more severe stage.
• Differentiate medial tibial stress syndrome, tibial BSI and other causes of shin pain, and match your management to the likely diagnosis.
• Identify anatomical sites and clinical features indicating a high-risk BSI, and make sure your patient receives urgent imaging, protection and specialist input without delay.
• Choose MRI or X-ray for each injury, so referral decisions are better informed.
• Address underlying causes, including energy availability, RED-S, nutrition, sleep, hormonal and metabolic health that affect bone capacity, to allow patients to progress and lower their risk of recurrence.
• Prescribe strength, progressive impact and osteogenic exercise to improve bone and muscle capacity, and prepare your athlete for future loading with an appropriate rehab program.
• Use symptoms, function and graded loading to guide return to running, so progression is based on healing and readiness rather than a date alone.

By the end of this module, you'll be able to confidently manage common low and high-risk bone stress injuries, and know when to refer patients for imaging and medical management. Case study examples guide you through how assessment, referral and management decisions come together when the stakes are high.

• Recognise biomechanical overload of the calf or anterior compartment, and avoid misdiagnosis and unnecessary invasive treatment.
• Differentiate neural, lumbar and vascular causes, so you don't miss red flags as a source of exertional leg pain.
• Manage load for specific triggers that increase muscle demand, pain or overload, including pace, hills, volume, recovery, forefoot striking and footwear.
• Use specific gait retraining cues to reduce tibialis anterior load, so selected runners can run more comfortably while capacity improves.
• Assess and progressively strengthen the calf and wider kinetic chain, so recurrent tightness is addressed with more than stretching or soft-tissue treatment.
• Classify acute calf and hamstring injuries, and provide rehab from initial injury to return to racing.
• Adapt rehab for sprinters and field athletes, so muscle length, strength, power and high-speed running ability are restored, and they are prepared for their sport, not just everyday activity.

By the end of this module, you'll have a clear framework for differential diagnosis of both gradual-onset and acute muscle pain, injuries and biomechanical overload, and a complete rehabilitation pathway.

• Differentiate PFP and ITBS from other sources of knee pain, so you can begin treatment with an accurate diagnosis.
• Understand why stretching or massaging the ITB is unlikely to solve the problem, so time is redirected towards more useful strategies.
• Modify downhill running, camber and training volume to settle ITBS while avoiding complete rest.
• Adjust knee flexion, quadriceps demand and hip adduction during exercises and running to alter patellofemoral joint load and create a tolerable starting point.
• Use education and shared decision-making to improve confidence and adherence, so your athlete becomes an active partner in their rehabilitation.
• Build strength, control and power through progressive exercise, so capacity catches up with running demands.
• Use step rate, stride width and other gait options to unload sensitive tissues while the runner stays active.
• Restore distance, hills and speed, so your patient returns to full training with fewer flare-ups.

By the end of this module, you'll have a strong framework to assess and treat ITBS and PFP. Your patients will be able to connect what they're performing in their rehab program with the progress they're making towards their running goals. You'll also explore detailed case studies that bring all four pillars together and guide you through how to adapt your rehab plan as your runner progresses.

• The key principles of power, the training types that develop it, and how they apply to injured athletes.
• Progression and periodisation, so power work fits around the rest of your patient's training.
• Power, performance and patellofemoral pain.
• How to assess power in the clinic, including the triple hop for distance and jump height.
• A full exercise library: power calf raises and calf rebounds, power deadlifts, hip thrusts and kettlebell swings, power lunges, squats and step ups, single leg plyometrics, pogos, drop jumps, hurdle hops and multidirectional plyometrics.

By the end of this module, you'll have practical ways to assess power and a broad set of exercises to develop it, so you can progress your patients towards the quick, demanding movements they need in running and sport.

• Develop and use an effective, patient-centred treatment for low back pain that helps your patients overcome their fears and get back to activity.
• Combine strength and conditioning and running rehab with Cognitive Functional Therapy, to help your low back pain patients fully recover and prepare physically and psychologically for the demands of their sport and daily life.
• Work through red flags, psychosocial factors and movement assessment, explaining pain, and building balance, strength and running tolerance.

By the end of this module, you'll take your low back pain patients on a step-by-step journey from pain to performance.

• Discover specific strengthening, range of movement exercises, load management and gait retraining you can use immediately with your Achilles tendinopathy patients.
• Avoid ineffective treatments that hamper your treatment results.

By the end of this module, you'll successfully differentiate Achilles tendinopathy, and employ effective treatment to get uncommonly good results with this common condition.

• Session 1: organising your first appointment around your patient's goals, working diagnosis, contributing factors and immediate plan.
• Capacity testing and the rehab sheets, so your findings guide exercise selection.
• Sessions 2 to 6: developing rehab, adding gait analysis when it will contribute to care, and progressing running.
• The athlete monitoring tools, the treatment tool box and the exercise selection cheat sheet.
• Ongoing athlete support, and the two case studies from first visit to return to running.

By the end of this module, you'll have a clearer way to organise your appointments and connect them into an individual course of care, using the assessment, rehab and monitoring resources together.

• Is pronation a risk factor for running injury? If so, when is it a key factor?
• How is pronation assessed, where does peak pronation occur, and how is it influenced by running gait?
• Running shoes should be selected based on foot shape, shouldn't they? There's a better way.
• How does shoe type influence running gait, and how do motion control shoes influence gait and injury?
• What are heel-toe drop, stack height and midsole hardness, and what impact do they have on injury risk?
• Barefoot versus shod running: the evidence, and the Minimalist Index.
• A simpler way to recommend footwear, with a video comparison of one runner in two shoes.

By the end of this module, you'll have a clearer way to answer your patients' shoe questions, explain the reasoning behind your advice, and assess whether a change supports their comfort and rehab.

• Bridge variations
• Side stepping
• Side lying progressions
• Squat variations
• Standing abduction
• Hip hitch and step up
• Sliding platform
• Plyometric options

By the end of this module, you'll have practical ways to strengthen your lateral hip pain management, with clearer activity advice and an exercise plan that builds towards the daily tasks and running goals your patient wants back.

• Tendon secrets: the principles that stay useful whichever tendon is involved.
• Tricky ankle tendons: distinguishing peroneal tendinopathy from tears and instability, and when further assessment is needed.
• Tricky hip tendons and return to running: hip flexor and adductor loading, progressed towards your patient's running demands.
• The tricky tibialis posterior tendon: the stages of posterior tibial tendon dysfunction, the single leg heel raise, and when exercise, footwear, orthoses or referral are the right call.

By the end of this module, you'll have a more structured way to approach tendon cases that feel less familiar, choosing relevant assessments, tailoring loading and recognising when your patient needs additional input.

• Address the challenges patients face, like “They just tell me to stop running”, “Every time I see a physio they find another part that's weak, stiff or unstable”, “I'm worried I'm going to do some lasting damage” and “I get different advice from every health professional. I'm confused.”
• Overcome the barriers and hurdles you face to getting great results with running injuries, like “It's hard to get people to do their exercises”, “I can't get my patients to cut down their running”, “I struggle with load management”, “Some athletes just want a quick fix” and “They keep getting injured!”
• Learn how to design effective, tailored treatment programs to help athletes beat persistent injury and get them back on track.

By the end of this module, you'll confidently overcome the barriers you face, and address your patients' fears, beliefs and challenges. You'll be able to solve those complex presentations, and get the satisfaction that comes from helping patients who are really struggling get back to the activities they love.

• Submit your questions and join live, or watch a recording of the Q&A when it suits you.
• Get the support you need to keep improving your confidence, while overcoming any treatment barriers you experience.
• Access all previous Q&As, covering a huge range of running-related questions.