Treatment · Physical therapy in Dallas, TXPhysical Therapy for Runners

Most running injuries are a load problem

Pain around the kneecap, along the shin, in the Achilles or under the heel usually has the same story behind it. Training load rose faster than the tissue could adapt, and the hip, calf or foot that should have absorbed part of that load did not. The place that hurts is where the load landed, not always where the problem started.

That is why physical therapy for runners here starts with the last few months of your training, not just with the sore spot. More mileage, more hills, faster work, a new surface, a return after time off or a change of shoe — two of those at once is the classic setup. A cause you can name is a cause you can manage, and the same conversation helps prevent it next season.

How to read this table: find the row that matches where it hurts, then look at the middle column, because that is what the plan has to change. The stress fracture row is the exception to keep running, and it is checked for first.

What the examination for runners looks at

A running injury rarely shows itself on a treatment table. The examination here tests your hips, knees and ankles while they carry weight: how the knee tracks on a single-leg squat and a step-down, how many quality single-leg heel raises each calf can do, hip abductor and extensor strength, ankle range, and how well you control your pelvis on one leg. Each side is compared with the other, because the difference between sides is often the finding. Groin, outer-hip and buttock pain get the same approach, covered on the hip pain page.

The things that predict runner’s knee are measurable before they hurt: single-leg control, hip strength, calf endurance and a training load that climbed faster than tissue tolerance. The same tests guide the plan for shin, Achilles and heel pain, which is why calf strength comes up in so many of these conversations.

The examination also screens for what is not a running injury, such as a stress fracture, compartment syndrome or a tendon rupture. If your problem needs imaging or a physician, you will be told that directly. We don’t guess, we assess.

Keep running where it is safe

“Stop running” is easy advice and usually poor advice. Complete rest takes capacity away from the exact tissue that needs more of it, and the pain comes back on the first run after the break.

So load is modified rather than removed. Volume, surface, hills and speed become a dose you control, and a marker you track tells you whether the dose is right — most runners use the distance at which symptoms begin, or how the area feels the next morning. Small cadence changes are worth checking too, because overstriding raises the load at the knee and shin.

The exception is a suspected stress fracture: that stops running until it has been checked. See shin splints or stress fracture for how the two feel different.

Hands-on treatment, then strength

Dr. Lockett is certified in dry needling (Cert. DN) and spinal manipulation (Cert. SMT), and trained in cupping and instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization. For runners, the needle most often goes into the deep calf, the hamstrings, the gluteal muscles and the hip, where trigger points limit range and keep a muscle guarding. Joint mobilization and manipulation are used where a stiff ankle, hip or lower back is changing how you load the leg. More on timing it in a season in dry needling for athletes.

Hands-on work opens a window; strength keeps it open. Every session moves into loaded work: calf and foot work for anything below the knee, quadriceps and hip for anything above it, single-leg control for both. Where a knee, shin or tendon is too irritable for heavy loading, blood flow restriction therapy lets the muscle train hard with light weights.

Coming back after an injury

Re-injuries tend to come a few weeks into a return, exactly when everything feels fine. Pain settles before the tissue has adapted, so capacity and confidence are furthest apart just when the temptation to speed up is strongest.

The return here uses criteria, not dates: brisk walking without pain, controlled single-leg hops without pain, no swelling or limp, full range, and strength close to the other side. Then running comes back in stages, volume before hills and hills before speed, each one judged by how you feel the next morning. The full stage-by-stage plan is in returning to running after injury, and hamstrings have their own version in hamstring strains that keep coming back.

If you have a race on the calendar, talk early about whether the return fits before it. Downgrading the distance is usually a better choice than squeezing the plan, and that decision is far easier in week two than in week eight.

Before a race, after a heavy week

Not every visit has to be a full hour. A 30-minute focused dry needling session is available for fast, targeted relief on a specific area — before a race, after a heavy training week, or when a known problem flares up. It suits a muscle you already know is the issue; a new or recurring problem needs the full 60-minute examination first. See the 30-minute dry needling session.

Sessions run at the clinic at 10670 North Central Expressway, Suite 110, in North Dallas, or at your home, office or gym across Dallas and the surrounding areas. Seeing you where you train means the movement that hurts can be tested where it happens. Visits away from the clinic carry an upcharge.

Runners, and the wider sports service

This page is about running. If you play a court or field sport, lift, or want a full-body screen before a season, sports performance therapy covers that wider picture with the same toolkit.

Every visit is 60 minutes, one-on-one with Dr. Brent Lockett, PT, DPT. The practice is out-of-network: you receive a superbill at the end of every session to file with your insurance for potential reimbursement. A 6-visit pain and movement plan is $840 and a 12-visit performance package is $1,560, both discounted against single sessions. No referral is needed to start: Texas allows up to 30 days of treatment without one, explained in do you need a referral in Texas.