Dr David Geier is the kind of specialist we all need more of in our lives. David and I discuss running injuries, and why he is not going to try to stop you running at every opportunity like other specialists who do not understand our needs as runners. He is proud to say that most injuries will not be long term if you deal with them early enough...Ignoring pain is something we as runners do well.

We discuss the dangers of using Dr Google to diagnose your injuries, but when it is okay to use the internet to help you with your injuries.

You will love the conversation about the story of Joan Benoit-Samuelson, and how she won the Olympic Trials in the US just 17(!!) days after knee surgery, and how she was able to pull it off.

This episode has a focus also on kids in sports, something I have felt passionately about for a long time. Dr David shares how you can prevent your child going through overuse injuries by adding just one season of a different sport. Even if your kid loves to run, they still need a few months of not doing it each year, to save their bodies and prevent burnout.

David believes (as do I), that sports should be fun, and if you push kids too hard too early, it can have long term consequences.

We go into detail about the mystery of compartment syndrome, and finally, we discuss the most easily preventable injury that runners struggle with, and how to make sure you don't end up with a stress fracture.

This podcast episode is for you if you have kids who play sports, if you struggle with injuries, and you are wondering what you could possibly be doing wrong to keep ending up with injuries. This doctor loves to see the excitement in a runners face when they get back to running, and will do whatever he can to get you healthy.

Today's Guest

Dr. David Geier

An orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist. Dr. Geier takes pride in helping other runners, especially those who are unable to visit his clinic in South Carolina. A Ted X speaker, and featured TV guest, this is one sports medicine doctor runners will want to listen to.

What You Will Learn About

• Why running through pain is the worst thing you can do as a runner
• What to look for in a doctor, therapist, specialist to help with your injuries
• How to know which research articles to trust when so many people tell you different things
• Can we reverse chronic injuries and fix the damage we have done to our bodies over the years?
• Why pushing kids too hard at a young age is damaging their bodies for the long-term
• Why the dropout rate for kids in sport is 70% by age 13
• Symptoms to look for if you think you might have compartment syndrome, and what to do if you do think you have it

Inspirational Quotes

The best part of it (his job) for me is the clinic, the excitement you see on somebodies face when you tell them they can go back to run or go back and lift weights, they get back to what they love to do. There is nothing better than that excitement when they have been out of something.

The challenge on the internet is that you don't really know the quality of the information.

If you are hurting, and you can't run as much as you want, go see somebody.

That's one of the things that has changed fundamentally about sports at a youth level...as early as 7 or 8 years old, they are being pressed to pick one sport and play it year round. These kids don't have the muscle strength, their bodies aren't able to withstand the same stress on the same parts of the body all year-long. That is why the injuries are skyrocketing, and they are largely preventable.

70% of kids drop out of sports by age 13. Burnout from coaches and parents is the biggest reason for that.

If they (kids) really love running, by all means, let them do it. I still would say, let them do it for 9 months a year, and 2-3 months they can run a little bit, but let them do something else...the problem with running, especially for kids if you do it every day, all year-long is that all that stress is going on the feet, the ankles, the legs, and the knees. It's not getting spread throughout the body. 

There is such a mentality that kids have got to be seen by the scouts, you have got to be on the right teams with the right coaches. 

Even more than injuries, all that pressure on kids, leads to a situation where they hide pain from their parents and coaches because they don't want to let them down, and that pain starts to build up, and then they get overuse injuries. That pressure just makes it not fun and they burn our of sports. We just need to at least until they get to the high school ages, let them have fun.

Sports push people to play through pain and play through injuries. Doing that can lead to bigger problems down the road.

The rule of thumb about increasing your training by 10% per week prevents stress fractures.

Fortunately with runners, the vast majority of things we can take care of early.

Resources Mentioned

• Last week's episode with Mario Fraioli
• Dr David's website
• Sports Medicine Simplified- Dr David's book