Building Up Your Running Without Breaking Down: A Physio's Perspective

One of the most common things we hear from runners coming into our clinic in Palmerston North is some version of "I was only doing it for a few weeks." They're surprised they got injured so quickly. They weren't doing anything dramatic. They were just running.
The truth is, running is one of the higher-load activities you can do. Your muscles, tendons, and joints are absorbing impact thousands of times per session. The body can absolutely adapt to this, but it needs time and the right approach. Here's what our sports physiotherapist in Palmerston North recommends for building up your running safely.

The Body Adapts, But Not Instantly
When you introduce a new training load, your body responds by getting stronger and more resilient. That process is the whole point of training. The problem is that it takes time, and the timeline for different tissues varies. Cardiovascular fitness adapts relatively quickly. You'll feel less breathless after a few weeks. But the muscles, tendons, and connective tissue that absorb the impact of running take longer to strengthen and condition. This mismatch is why runners often feel fine aerobically but pick up tissue injuries, especially in the early stages of building a training programme.

Warning Signs of Overload
Your body usually gives you signals before an injury becomes serious. In the early stages, these signals are easy to dismiss or run through. The ones to pay attention to:

• Progressive tightness — a calf or hip that keeps getting tighter over days and weeks, rather than recovering between sessions
• Aching that doesn't resolve — muscle soreness that's still present 48 hours after a run, particularly if it's getting worse over time rather than better
• Pain that comes on during a run — especially if it appears earlier in the run each time you go out

These signals are telling you that the load is exceeding what the tissue can recover from. Catching them early and adjusting your training is far better than pushing through to the point where the injury forces you to stop completely.

Build Distance Before Pace
One of the most useful principles for new runners is to build distance gradually before focusing on speed. This matters because faster running places significantly more demand on the muscles. The calf has to generate a more explosive push-off force. The hip stabilisers have to work harder with every stride.
If you're building from scratch, the goal in the first weeks and months is to accumulate time on your feet at a comfortable pace. Your aerobic base will improve, and the tissues involved in running will begin to adapt to the load. Speed can come later, once that foundation is in place.
Watch Your Total Load, Not Just Your Running Mileage
A pattern we see regularly is runners who add extra activities alongside their running without accounting for the cumulative load on their bodies. Skipping is a good example. It places significant demand on the calf, just like running does. If you're already building your running and you add skipping sessions on top, your calves are carrying a load from both activities. That cumulative stress adds up quickly.

The same applies to other high-impact activities: jumping, plyometrics, and agility work. These aren't things to avoid permanently, but when you're building a running base, it's worth being deliberate about total load rather than just monitoring your running distance alone.
Strength Work Is Part of the Programme
The runners who build up most successfully tend to include some targeted strength work alongside their running from the start. Not hours in the gym, but consistent attention to the muscles that running relies on most.
For most recreational runners, that means:

• Calf strength — single leg calf raises off a step, with a slow lowering phase, to build the calf's capacity to handle running loads over time
• Hip stability — single-leg exercises like step-downs, split-squats and clamshells to strengthen the outer hip muscles that stabilise you with every running stride
• Knee control — inner quadriceps focused knee extensions and controlled single leg squats to strengthen correct knee alignment to control the impact forces of running without compensation
  

Done consistently a few times per week, this kind of targeted work builds the resilience that lets you keep increasing your mileage without breaking down.
When to See a Physio
​You don't have to wait until you're injured to see a sports physio. If you're new to running and want to build a programme that reduces your injury risk, an assessment at the start can be genuinely useful. Our sports physio team in Palmerston North can identify any movement or strength issues that might cause problems down the track, and give you a programme to address them before they become injuries.

And if you're already noticing tightness, aching, or pain with running, don't wait and hope it settles. The earlier it's assessed, the simpler the treatment tends to be.

Book an appointment with our sports physiotherapist in Palmerston North and keep your running on track.