Back in March I spent far too much time researching Plantar Fasciitis online and shared my top 10 websites for runners. As I’m feeling generous, I’ve decided to share my top 10 websites for injured runners. If you don’t have a running injury then lucky you, this post probably isn’t for you. If, like me, you are injury-prone, I hope you find at least one of these websites useful.

I think it’s worth emphasising that although we all do it, self-diagnosing running injuries usually only ends in tears and frustration. Nothing irritates me more than a runner posting a photo of an undiagnosed injury online and asking for help from complete strangers. Please, please, please visit your GP or a physiotherapist before surfing the net.

So here are my top 10 websites (in no particular order) for injured runners:

1. Rehab4Runners* Rehab4Runners is a UK site which describes itself as a site providing injury advice for runners of all standards from serious, competing athletes to those who jog for fun or fitness. The focus of the site is the treatment and rehabilitation of common running injuries, from a runner’s point of view, with a therapist’s knowledge. Rehab4Runners is written by Graduate Sports Rehabilitator Heidi Dawson. Heidi spotted a gap in the market back in 2012; the result is this comprehensive online resource. My favourite area of the site is obviously the Plantar fasciitis page.

Useful features and articles include:

• Is running bad for your knees?
• Rest and recovery
• Stretching for runners

*Sadly, as of March 2020 the Rehab4Runners site no longer appears to be up and running so to speak.

2. RunningPhysio RunningPhysio is another UK site run by Tom, a keen runner and a physiotherapist with over 10 years experience. The site aims to offer expert advice in preventing and managing running injuries, and includes useful ‘Injuries’ and ‘Training Advice’ sections. If you’ve got an injury you are pretty much guaranteed to find a fully illustrated article or guest post that will help.

Popular articles include:

• Managing acute calf tears
• Plantar fasciitis – important new research by Michael Rathleff
• ITBS

3. Sportsinjuryclinic.net Sportsinjuryclinic.net describes itself as the sports injury clinic on the net. Sounds good! The site contains information on hundreds of sports injuries and conditions with treatment, rehabilitation, exercises and more. The site is easy to navigate and regularly updated. Once I’d spent far too long reading about plantar fasciitis, I found the section on foam roller exercises really useful with loads of diagrams and links to videos.

Useful features and articles include:

• Symptom Checker
• Rehabilitation and exercises
• Foam roller exercises

4. Kinetic Revolution Huge thanks to Anna and Maria for reminding me about another UK site – Kinetic Revolution. I’ve no idea how I managed to miss such a useful site off my initial list! Kinetic Revolution aims to build better runners, and includes a wealth of injury prevention tips and exercises. I’ve just spent some time looking around the site, and suspect that the running injury and rehab resources will be particularly useful. There’s a page dedicated to plantar fasciitis which includes some easy to follow dedicated plantar fasciitis stretches and also the option of downloading a free PDF of some plantar fasciitis rehab exercises.

Recent videos and articles have included:

• Super targeted calf stretch for runners
• Tight calves? Soleus foam rolling techniques
• Blood donation and exercise: what you need to know

5. NHS Choices The NHS Choices site now has a dedicated Sports Injuries page. This page covers basics such as the cause of sports injuries, what to do if you have an injury and the treatment and prevention of sports injuries. Although the information is quite basic, the site provides links to other useful sites and resources.

Useful features and resources include:

• Examples of sports injuries
• Knee pain and other running injuries
• Clinical trials for sports injuries

6. PhysioRoom.com PhysioRoom.com describes itself as the ultimate sports injury website, and has been one the UK’s leading sports injury websites for a number of years. I think I first found the site when I was struggling with a groin injury back in 2008. Although the focus of the site is very much on selling you the products it recommends for your injury – in my case plantar fasciitis – it does provide useful information on the symptoms, treatment and prevention of your injury. It’s just a shame the site is quite hard to navigate.

Articles I found informative include:

• Runner’s knee treatment
• Plantar fasciitis
• Core strengthening exercises

Totally unrelated to running, but I find the English Premier League injury table  fascinating. Professional footballers do appear to be rather injury prone!

7. Runner’s World Since the recent improvements(?) to the Runner’s World UK site earlier this year, I’ve switched my attention to Runner’s World USA.  The kind people at Runner’s World have organised their injury prevention and treatment articles into categories based on what part hurts, this makes navigating the site simple. I found some of the real-life case studies reassuring, particularly those about runners who have made a full recovery from plantar fasciitis.

Popular articles include:

• Planting the Pain in your foot: What causes Plantar Fasciitis and how to deal with it
• Abbey D’Agostino: How to recover from a devastating injury like a pro
• 6 Things Never to Say to an Injured Friend

8. Running Competitor Running Competitor was founded in 1987 and describes itself as the authentic voice of running in America. The site has evolved over the years, and now has a useful section dedicated to injury prevention.

Articles I found useful include:

• The truth about Plantar Fasciitis
• 7 Injury prevention strategies for pain-free running
• Injuries suck – here’s how to make the best of them

9. Jasyoga Jasyoga describes itself as yoga by athletes, for athletes and was launched 2010 with the mission of supporting athletes to get the most out of doing the things they love, and also to achieve their goals in both life and sport. I’ve been subscribing to the Jasyoga site for over a year and for $9.99/month get unlimited access to numerous yoga for athletes videos that aim to help me recover, prevent injuries and perform. I love Jasyoga so much it’s had the rather dubious honour of being featured as a rave last June .

Useful Jasyoga videos available on YouTube include:

• Quick reset with Erin Taylor
• Yoga for Runners (Jasyoga Pre-Run Sequence)
• Dynamic Hamstring Flexibility for Runners

10. Chartered Society of Physiotherapy The final site to make it into my ‘Top 10’ is the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. Some might think this is a strange site to include, but I found the ‘Physio2u’ find a physiotherapist search feature really useful. I’m not going to say too much on here, but from personal experience it’s probably worth checking that person you’ve been handing £50/hour for sports physiotherapy, is actually a qualified physiotherapist…

Once again, I hope that some of the websites and resources I’ve summarised will be useful to someone with a running injury. Hopefully you’ll never need to Google ‘running injury’ but if you do, you’ll find a wealth of information online. As always, I apologise if my rambling post has bored you to tears.

Have I missed out any websites injured runners may find useful? If I have then please let me know and I’ll add them to my list.

Are you an injury prone runner? Unfortunately, my dodgy right foot means that I’ll probably struggle with injuries for the rest of my running career.

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