Most runners come back to the sport too fast, guided by how a joint feels on a given day rather than how much load it can actually tolerate. Pain is a poor early-warning system: by the time it shows up, tissue is often already reacting to overload.
A safer return starts with restoring full, pain-free range of motion and basic strength benchmarks before any running is reintroduced. From there, load is added in small, measurable steps: walk-run intervals, then continuous easy running, then tempo and hill work, each stage held until it's tolerated without a flare the following day.
The single biggest predictor of re-injury we see isn't the injury itself, it's skipping stages because a patient feels ready before their tissue is. A structured plan protects against that instinct.
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