Why “Just Rest” Is the Worst Running Advice You’ll Ever Get

Fort Collins runners: we need to have a conversation.

This town has a very specific personality disorder.

One minute I'm grabbing coffee at Lima. The next, someone casually tells me they “only got to run 12 miles before work.”

Between the Horsetooth Half, Black Squirrel, Quad Rock, The Colorado Marathon, and the Blue Sky Marathon… Fort Collins runs. A lot.

And with that, we at Renovo see a lot of:

• knee pain

• shin splints

• Achilles tendinitis

• plantar fasciitis

• hip pain

• IT band syndrome

• and the classic: “I took 3 days off and somehow it feels worse.”

Which brings us to one of the worst pieces of advice runners constantly hear:

“Just rest.”

Groundbreaking stuff. Really elite problem-solving there.

Because here’s the issue:

Most running injuries aren’t caused by running itself. They’re caused by poor load management.

Your body doesn’t hate running. It hates surprises.

A massive 2025 study followed over 5,200 runners using GPS tracking and found something important:

Injury risk skyrocketed when a single run exceeded the runner’s longest run from the previous 30 days.

Not weekly mileage.

Not carbon-plated shoes.

Not whether Mercury was in retrograde.

Just abrupt spikes in workload.

Even increasing beyond your previous longest run by around 10% significantly increased injury risk.

Double your previous longest run?

Injury rates increased by 128%.

Translation:

Your tissues adapt incredibly well to stress.

They just need time to adapt to progressive stress.

Running 5 miles isn’t dangerous.

Running 19 miles out of nowhere because your friend texted, “Bro you should come do this trail loop with us”

…that’s usually the problem.

The old “just rest it” approach is outdated.

Especially for tendon injuries.

Achilles pain.

Patellar tendinitis.

Hamstring tendinopathy.

Gluteal tendon pain.

The research is overwhelmingly clear now:

Tendons need load to heal.

Not complete rest.

A 2025 review in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports found that progressive loading programs — eccentric or heavy slow resistance training — consistently outperform “wait and see” approaches.

Because when you completely unload a tendon:

• it becomes weaker

• less tolerant to force

• more sensitive

• and slower to recover

  
  

So yes… sitting on the couch for 6 weeks hoping your Achilles magically “calms down” is generally a terrible rehab strategy.

Your tendon isn’t a houseplant. You can’t just leave it alone and hope for the best.

Want to prevent running injuries? The boring stuff works.

I know.

Everyone wants the secret shoe .The magic mobility drill. The copper-infused compression sock blessed by Brett Favre.

But the evidence keeps pointing to the same things.

1. Strength training works. A lot.

A 2024 randomized trial found that runners doing a physiotherapist-guided hip and core strengthening program reduced lower-extremity injuries by 34% and substantial overuse injuries by 52% compared to stretching alone.

Another study found runners performing strength training and foam rolling twice weekly had an 85% lower injury risk.

The catch?

Consistency mattered.

The runners who half-committed and randomly skipped sessions actually did worse.

Which honestly applies to basically everything in fitness.

2. Your running mechanics matter too.

Another randomized controlled trial found that just 2 weeks of gait retraining reduced injuries by 62% over the following year.

One of the simplest changes?

Increasing cadence slightly and learning to land a little softer.

That can reduce:

• knee loading

• hip loading

• impact forces

• braking forces

  
  

without changing your running style into something weird and robotic.

No, you do not need to suddenly start running barefoot on gravel while reading Born to Run for the 14th time.

3. Complete rest usually backfires

Even stress fractures and bone stress injuries are managed differently now.

Modern rehab focuses on:

• symptom-guided loading

• maintaining fitness

• strategic cross-training

• and gradual return-to-running progressions

  
  

Because completely shutting the body down tends to reduce tissue capacity.

Which means the second you try returning to running…

everything hurts again.

The real solution? Smarter rehab.

Most running injuries are multifactorial.

It’s usually some combination of:

• training errors

• recovery issues

• tissue capacity

• strength deficits

• movement mechanics

• sleep

• stress

• nutrition

• or trying to PR every Tuesday because your Garmin called you “unproductive.”

  
  

“Just rest” addresses approximately none of those things.

Good rehab does.

Dealing with a running injury in Fort Collins?

Whether it’s Achilles pain, knee pain, shin splints, plantar fasciitis, hip pain, or you just want to keep training without constantly breaking down — we help active adults and runners build plans that actually make sense.

At Renovo Physical Therapy & Wellness, we focus on:

• performance-based rehab

• strength training for runners

• running gait analysis

• load management

• return-to-running programs

• and helping people stay active instead of endlessly resting.

  
  

Because you probably don’t need to stop running.

You probably just need a smarter plan.

Want help? Book an evaluation with Renovo Physical Therapy & Wellness in Fort Collins.

References

1. Schuster Brandt Frandsen J, Hulme A, Parner ET, et al. How much running is too much? Identifying high-risk running sessions in a 5200-person cohort study. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2025;59(17):1203-1210.

2. Kjær M, Petersen J, Dünweber MR, et al. Dilemma in the Treatment of Sports Injuries in Athletes: Tendon Overuse, Muscle Strain, and Tendon Rupture. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. 2025;35(2):e70026.

3. Leppänen M, Aaltonen S, Parkkari J, et al. Hip and Core Exercise Programme Prevents Running-Related Overuse Injuries in Adult Novice Recreational Runners. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2024.

4. Chan ZYS, Au IPH, Lau FOY, et al. Gait Retraining for the Reduction of Injury Occurrence in Novice Distance Runners: 1-Year Follow-Up of a Randomized Controlled Trial. American Journal of Sports Medicine. 2018;46(2):388-395.

5. Desai P, Jungmalm J, Börjesson M, Karlsson J, Grau S. Effectiveness of an 18-Week General Strength and Foam-Rolling Intervention on Running-Related Injuries in Recreational Runners. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. 2023.

6. Doyle MM, Swartzendruber A, Willson JD, Kernozek TW. The Effectiveness of Gait Retraining on Running Kinematics, Kinetics, Performance, Pain, and Injury in Distance Runners: A Systematic Review. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy. 2022.

7. Warden SJ, Davis IS, Fredericson M, et al. Management and Prevention of Bone Stress Injuries in Long-Distance Runners. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy. 2021.