Good studies show that the annual running injury rate is between 17% and 85%. Why the large discrepancy? It’s in the definition of a running injury. For instance, some studies define running injuries as non-traumatic and would not count an ankle sprain from falling while running as a running injury. An ankle sprain would be the tearing of the ligaments from a force generated beyond the body’s normal excursion of movement. Since running is considered a mid-range movement, an ankle ligament would not tear from normal running. Other studies would include an ankle sprain as a running injury even if the runner could not identify the moment when the ankle was overextended, which may or may not have occurred while running.

Patellar femoral syndrome is a commonly diagnosed and studied running injury. This term is very unclear and often occurs from activities outside of running such as habitual twisting of the knee during lifting activities. Because it interferes with weight-bearing exercise it can be termed as a running injury in a runner or a dancing injury in a dancer.

Low back problems commonly come in as running injuries but it is often unclear if these are coming from running or interfering with running. The low back injury rate is the same between runners and non-runners.

The important running injury rate statistics are very clear. They are the highest for runners with less then 3 years experience, one year previous running injury, or transitioning within one year into minimalist running footwear. The Running Injury Recovery Program will help you to develop a program to get over your running injuries without having to worry about the annual running injury rate.

This post is written by Bruce Wilk, author of the The Running Injury Recovery Program. Bruce is also a board certified physical therapist and the director of Orthopedic Rehabilitation Specialists, a private physical therapy practice located in Miami, FL, and the president of The Runner’s High, a specialty running store also located in Miami. He is also the RCAA certified head coach of the Miami Runners Club, and has completed multiple road races himself, including 26 full marathons and four Ironman races. For more information, please visit postinjuryrunning.com, and to purchase the Running Injury Recovery Program, please visit goneforarun.com