Posted in Blog, Featured, Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, Running.
Patient Spotlight: Luke Whitney
Physical Therapist: Connor Hesselbirg, PT, DPT, FAFS
There were so many great performances and outcomes from a number of athletes I worked with this year. I wanted to give a special shoutout to one of my patients, Luke. I first met Luke in early March after he was recently diagnosed with a stress fracture in his shin. Not sure on how to proceed, he came to Finish Line PT for answers to help him get ready to run the NYC marathon, his first marathon ever. There wasn’t even a total guarantee he would get to the starting line fully healthy. Stress fractures can be a long and complex recovery process, but we had a mission to get him there as healthy as he could be.
After weeks of rest and recovery, the rehab process was ready to start immediately. We started light with strengthening and some mobility exercises to keep his body fit as we promoted healing in his shin and prepared for a return to running protocol. After being patient for a few months, we began a return-to-run protocol on our Boost Treadmills once we gave his shin enough time to heal properly. The Boost treadmill allowed him to start running with less weight-bearing on his shin so there was less pain with running as he built his aerobic base back up. After a month of light aerobic running on the Boost, we then progressed to running outdoors, and we were able to increase his mileage more appropriately than he did last season which led to his stress fracture.
From there, our focus in PT shifted more from recovery and rehabilitation to more strengthening and preventative care. He was running strong and started incorporating speed workouts with perfect timing to begin marathon training, and kept up with the strength exercises we progressed throughout the last few months. The timing of his rehab and marathon training could not have lined up better.
Every now and then, trickles of pain would occur in his shin as well as other parts of his legs like his hips, but we had plenty of home exercises to throw back into the routine and didn’t have to miss a step in his training. He learned how to listen to his body when it needed to recover, and when he knew to push training without needing extra time to heal.
At this point, goals were starting to shape up for his marathon. Having it be his first race, anything can happen. We put a plan in place to start the race hard yet comfortable to ease into the race at the right pace, and once he hit mile 16 to start letting it rip. Given the energy of the day, his mental toughness and fitness he built over the last 3 months, his first marathon ended up finishing as a Boston Qualifier of 2:56.
Luke followed everything down to the tee to make sure he got to finish the NYC marathon healthy. Once he knew that was in his grasp, we were able to create a plan to go beyond just finishing. Luke’s hard work and commitment to PT not just from a rehab point of view, but a preventive point of view was how he was able to accomplish such an amazing race. Only the beginning for this young marathon runner.
