When You're Showing Up, But Results Aren't

We’ve all heard that staying consistent is the key to seeing long-term results.

But what if you are being consistent… and still aren’t seeing the progress you’re looking for?

Maybe you’re:

• Doing your physical therapy exercises consistently, but you’re still having pain.
• Lacing up your running shoes multiple times a week, but you still don’t feel fitter or faster.
• Constantly tweaking your training plan, but somehow still feel stuck.

When you’re in the thick of it, it can be really hard to know whether what you’re doing is actually moving you forward or if you’re just spinning your wheels.

Because consistency is important.

But consistency with the wrong plan won’t get you where you want to go.

Think about your running.

You can be perfectly consistent with a training plan designed to help you run a faster 5K.

But if your goal is to run a faster marathon, that same plan probably isn’t going to give you the results you’re hoping for.

The same thing happens with physical therapy.

You might be doing your exercises exactly as prescribed and getting stronger. But if those exercises are only preparing you to run 5 easy miles per week without pain, they may not be enough when you start running 15 miles per week or adding speed work.

Your training and rehab need to evolve with your goals.

This is one of the biggest reasons I see runners start and stop their running journey.

It’s not because they’re lazy.

It’s not because they aren’t willing to do the work. Usually, they’re actually very willing to do the work.

They just don’t have a clear path for what the work should look like as their goals change.

And when the work stops matching the goal, they get frustrated and start wondering if they need a different exercise, different shoe, or different training plan. 

Or maybe they should just rest for a few weeks to "reset" and try again later.

And before long, they’re constantly changing what they’re doing instead of giving the right things enough time to work.

So what should you do instead?

1. Start with the end goal.
Ask yourself: What am I actually trying to be able to do? Running pain-free? Increasing your mileage? Getting faster? Training for a specific race? Your plan should work backward from that goal.

2. Make sure your rehab or training matches your current demands.
If your running is getting longer, faster, or more frequent, your strength and conditioning need to progress too. Your body needs to be prepared for what you’re asking it to do. Not just what you were doing a few weeks ago.

3. Stop changing everything at once.
If something isn’t working, don’t immediately throw the entire plan out. Take a step back and ask: What part of this plan actually needs to change? Sometimes you don’t need a completely new approach, you just need the next progression.

You don’t need to do more just for the sake of doing more.

You need to make sure the things you’re consistently doing are actually moving you toward the runner you want to become.

And if you want to know more about setting yourself on the right path, I wrote out all of my top advice for runners stuck in the start-stop cycle of running in a 40-page guide: Run Ready Roadmap.

It walks you through the things I want runners to understand about building strength, managing pain, returning to running, and knowing what to work on next so you can reevalute what you might need to tweak to start moving forward with a plan.

Questions about your specific situation? Hit reply to this email to ask me your question.

—
Dr. Erin Kennedy Dalisay, PT, DPT, OCS
Doctor of Physical Therapy & Run Coach