The short answer, no. Ok, story time. Greg comes to the physio complaining of achilles pain when he plays football. Greg typically trains twice per week and plays football once per week. However, he has recently started training for a half marathon and over the last 3 weeks. His pain starts after 5 minutes of running and progressively increases throughout his session. Greg has avoided coming to the physio because he doesn't want to be told he can't run anymore. However, he is getting frustrated now because he isn't making any progress and is concerned it might slow down his training. Greg is diagnosed with Achilles tendinopathy. Greg’s first questions is: "Do I have to stop running?". Our answer: "No" Now this obviously depends on the injury severity and would be a case by case assessment for different patients. However in most cases if you cease running altogether, you are potentially doing more harm than good. By regularly training (in Greg's case, 2 x trainings and one football game), a certain level of tissue tolerance is built up. If Greg were to completely cease training his achilles will feel great. However over time, Greg's new tissue tolerance reduces to nothing. Therefore, any amount of running has the potential to flare up his achilles issue again. Therefore, the best approach is to find a balance between keeping a level of activity to maintain tissue tolerance and rest to enable healing in conjunction with strength and conditioning exercises, all of which can be overseen by your physiotherapist. #darwin #NT #physio #physiotherapy #rehab #sportsrehab #sport #exercise
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