Running Program   

Are you limited to doing your daily or weekend runs around the lake because of pain? Are you a marathon runner who has suffered from several injuries?

At Saunders Therapy Centers, we have a team of running specialists, who can get you on the road to recovery after an injury, assist in injury prevention, and enhance overall performance.

As a weekend runner or marathon runner, you can expect a thorough evaluation of your musculoskeletal injury, shoe selection, biomechanical assessment, and foot posture. The following are the four main components to our running program:

MUSCULOSKELETAL EVALUATION: An evaluation of your posture, muscle imbalances including tightness or overactivity, biomechanical assessment, and a foot analysis to determine structure and mechanical faults. All of these components give us an overall assessment of possible etiological factors to your acute or chronic injury.

FOOTWEAR ANALYSIS: As a client, we will analyze your specific running shoe and provide recommendations, educate you regarding shoe "health" and types, and orthotic recommendations.

RUNNING GAIT VIDEO ANALYSIS: We will use a frame by frame videotape assessment while you run on a treadmill to evaluate your lower extremity alignment/foot biomechanics and identify muscular imbalances. This way you too can visualize your biomechanical defaults and understand the basis of your treatment and rehabilitation.



TREATMENT: Whether you suffer from plantar fascitis, shin splints, or hip/back pain with running, we incorporate the above assessment with specific treatment techniques to help return you back to painfree running. These may include:

• Manual Therapy: Joint/soft tissue mobilization may be performed to improve flexibility, promote healing, and increase efficiency with movement patterns.
• Core Stabilization: Sport specific training to strengthen back, hip, and abdominal musculature to help decrease mechanical load on your lower body and improve balance/proprioception for activities.
• Exercise instruction: A home exercise program to improve muscular flexibility, strengthening, balance, and facilitate good muscle memory for return to running.
• Total Contact Orthotics: Foot orthoses are molded for the client in our clinic.