National Physical Therapy Month

October is the time to celebrate movement, strength and the power of recovery. This month, we're teaming up with local experts to bring you the inspo, advice and motive to keep you moving! Brace yourselves for wise words and best practises from our community partners, events and product recommendations. We are so grateful for all of our community partners and hope you'll check back here as we will continue to update this page throughout the month. 

Upcoming In-Store Screenings:

• October 23rd - Next Level Physio Injury Screenings - 3 to 5pm - Fleet Feet Durham Southpoint. Registration required. Sign up for a 15 minute time slot here.

• November 5th - Radiance PT Pelvic Health Screenings - 3 to 5pm - Fleet FEet Durham Southpoint. Registration required. Sign up for a 15 minute time slot here.

Advice from Dr. Megan Rodio of Next Level Physio:

Why Strength Training Is Essential for Runners

While getting in your miles is crucial, there's one often-overlooked component that can make or break your running performance: strength training. Incorporating regular strength workouts into your marathon training plan offers several key benefits:

1. Injury Prevention
   Running is a high-impact, repetitive motion. Strength training helps correct muscle imbalances and improves joint stability, reducing your risk of common running injuries.
2. Improved Running Economy
   Stronger muscles require less energy to produce movement. You'll run more efficiently - meaning you can hold your pace longer with less fatigue.
3. Better Form Under Fatigue
   As you tire during a marathon, your running form tends to break down. A strong core, glutes, and posterior chain can help you maintain proper posture and stride, even in the final miles.

How to Get Started
Our goal as runners isn’t to build a ton of muscle mass, it’s simply to stay strong and be injury free. Most runners are missing single leg strength and rotational strength in their programing. It doesn’t need to be a long, complex workout that takes an hour of your time three times a week. 30 minutes, twice a week is the perfect starting place.

Now What?

If you aren’t sure where to start, or maybe have some aches and pains that aren’t going away, at Next Level Physio we can help with running form, strength training, and any injuries. Dr. Megan Rodio is a runner herself in the Fleet Feet distance program and loves helping other runners reach their goals.

Click the link below to get started with Next Level Physio: Contact Us Form

Advice from Dr. Mbong Henry of Radiance Physical Therapy:

Plan and prioritize your recovery! Our workouts are only as good as our ability to reset. Recovery is not just foam rolling, it's sleep, nutrition, and scheduling down time, and allowing our training plans to be adaptable to when life's stressors show up-- all of this helps so that our bodies can heal themselves from all the hard work we do and its one of the top ways to avoid injury! 

Click to get started with Radiance Physical Therapy: Contact Us Form

Advice from Dr. Norah Whitten of Functional Phyzio:

My biggest piece of advice would be to not forget to stretch your quads - my favorite way is with the couch stretch! With all the sitting most people do, tight quads and hips can limit the ability for your hip to open during running and now allow you to really utilize your glutes and hammies! Click here for my favorite way to do couch stretch!

Click to get started with Functional Phyzio: Learn More.

 Thank you to all of our local providers for keeping us running strong! If you're a provider and want to be featured on this page, please reach out to nora.ayers@fleetfeet.com!