Here is a quick overview of how my rehabilitation is going right now with my training, my learnings, my “Gear” , overall what i’m doing to get better and get rid of my injury
Current Status Of My Rehab
At the moment I am coming back from injury and rebuilding step by step. The focus is on patience, consistency and listening to my body, rather than chasing big performances.
So i see a physio every week with which I discuss a lot about that painful thing that i have for years now. He gives me useful advices that i try to follow. And obviously, i do some training in those sessions, pretty hard workouts ( for a beginer point of vue a least : it’s 10min but exhausting ones i garantee that. In addition i also have to do some workout on my own the rest of the week, as well as short easy runs.
Strength And Mobility Exercises
Description of the key exercises I use to rebuild a solid base.
Several times per week I work on basic strength and mobility. That means simple movements for the feet, ankles, calves and hips, plus some core work. I do calf raises, balance drills on one leg, light squats and hip stability exercises. The idea is to teach my body to absorb impact again in a controlled way.
Short Easy Runs
How I reintroduced running without rushing the process.
Running is coming back very slowly. For now I keep my outings short, at an easy pace and with plenty of rest days. The goal of each run is not distance or speed, only good sensations. If something feels wrong, I stop and adjust instead of forcing.
To give you some figures, i run approximativly at a 7:30 min/km pace, which is really slow. I can’t really go faster without being injured. But for now the point is no to go fast, it is just to be able to actually run. I started running 5min at that pace and being exhausted, and feeling pain from the first step to the last. Now i can go for 8min without real pain , but still really tired at the end, and still moving as fast as a snail. But it doesn’t affect me since i know that it is a long run : it will take time and my current time doesn’t define me at all. I can already see progress by not feeling pain : that’s a big victory. By the way, i think that once i’ll be a bit better, it will get even better with an exponential progress.
Flat Shoes With Little Cushioning
Why I chose flatter shoes and what I am learning from them.
During this rehab I switched to flatter shoes with less cushioning and less drop. It forces me to land more gently, stay aware of my technique and use my muscles instead of relying only on foam. I increase time in these shoes very progressively, always checking how my feet and calves react the next day.
In fact few weeks in the rehab, i went playing futsal. I had my futsal shoes to play and surprisingly i didn’t have any pain. That’s when i understood that im used to run on flat cushion for years and to feel the ground very well. There is no cheating with those shoes : either you can go fast , or you can’t, whereas with “real” running shoes, you can go faster and not really feal any pain, but just a few of those runs can really damage your body.
So now i do my runs with my fustal shoes. I might look funny tho. But it doesn’t matter.
What I Measure And Track
The signals I pay attention to in order to stay on the right path.
I keep an eye on pain level, fatigue, sleep and how my legs feel in daily life. Since i didn’t run for years regularly, my body is not used to. So i need my body to do adaptations by doing an progressive overload. It means that i have to do really slow and soft runs but pretty often so my body will at first be hurting pretty bad but will also be able to adapt and to harden.