Steady State

Performance physical therapy + run coaching. Helping you run, lift, & stay active for life.

Specialties: running, pelvic health, CrossFit, lifting, ACL rehab

Building durable bodies that inspire opportunity.

08/29/2025

Is your PT surprised when you tell them how often or how much you run?

Does your PT tell you to ‘just take some time off’ or default to imaging, injections, and surgeries?

If you are a runner and you are injured, you’d be better off seeing a PT who understands running.

Steady State is Portland Maine’s premier running physical therapy. Give us a call!

08/21/2025

Did you know? Changing your running form is more likely to increase your chance of injury rather than decrease.

There is certainly a lot of nuance to this statement, so let's dig in!

We do gait analyses all the time, and we do sometimes help people change running form.

But before doing a gait analyses we consider if it is actually necessary- and only make this suggestion if it will be for the best long term- and we always follow this with lots of education around how to do it in a smart way.

It is much harder than people think to change how your body is used to moving.

Adjusting your cadence is a common suggestion to help with overstriding.

But this is still easier said than done, as typically people will just run faster to increase their cadence, which doesn’t actually change your form.

If you want to actually change your form by increasing your cadence, you typically need to start with a treadmill at a set speed - to force you to change how you move and not just run faster.

During this initial period you typically also need to limit how much you run outside - as this will encourage your typical movement pattern.

All of this to say, actually changing your running form is very challenging and often not necessary.

There are usually much easier ways to improve your body's durability and injury risk!

08/19/2025

Are you a runner? Have you been thinking of seeing a physical therapist?

Here are some reasons why traditional physical therapy typically doesn't help runners:

1- The PT doesn't have 1-1 time with you.

2- The PT has 1-1 time with you, but just 15-30 mins.

3- The PT doesn't run themselves.

4- The PT doesn't understand how impactful running is on your body, which leaves you significantly underprepared.

5- The PT can't help you with 2/3 of the rehab process.

Please don't give up hope until you've worked with a Running Physical Therapist who sees you 1-1 for hour-long sessions, and can help you progress through all 3 stages of the running rehab process!

08/15/2025

The biggest reason why runners are stuck in an endless injury cycle:

The brain's natural response to feeling pain is to LIMIT the use of the painful area.

In the short term, this is helpful, but eventually this leads to chronic weaknesses and muscle imbalances!

Once the pain of an injury resolves, people are often no longer motivated to continue to work on their underlying weaknesses.

Despite feeling fine, these strength and mobility deficits persist.

This is why it is important to test and continue to retest your strength and mobility. At Steady State, we help prescribe the strength stimulus required to continue producing more adaptations.

Our ultimate goal is to help you build an 'injury buffer'- where your body isn't just strong enough to handle your current activity level, but also any upcoming increases in activity level.

08/12/2025

Are you an injured runner?

Did your doctor recommend you just take pain meds/NSAIDs for X amount of time?

This is not an informed decision!

While there are certainly complications is taking too many meds or too often, the main reason we typically recommend avoiding them is that you don't want to mask the pain.

You want to be able to know how your body is handling your current activity level. If taking pain meds regularly or preventatively, you won't know what your body's natural response would have been to your recent activity.

This commonly creates an environment where your body is exposed to too much, and therefore can significantly prolong the recovery process.

WHEN should you consider taking pain meds?

Generally when you can't focus because of the pain. But try to take the minimum dose needed to allow you to focus on other daily tasks. And don't give in to the temptation to take them preventatively, as what causes pain one day may be totally fine a day or 2 later!

Disclaimer: we are not medical doctors and are not medication specialists. However, we still commonly talk with people whose recommendation from their medical doctor was to just take NSAIDs for X time (without any further information). Hopefully more info can help you ask more questions the next time you're given a blanket recommendation!

08/05/2025

At Steady State, we provide you with everything you need to make an informed decision about your treatment.

You don’t have to settle for mediocre healthcare providers who tell you to “Just Rest” or offer injections & imaging before conservative solutions.

Traditional methods often overlook the unique needs of runners & active individuals.

Our injuries are more complex. Being more active, there are many more variables to consider.

You need someone who gets it and will fully educate you so you can choose what solution is best for YOU!

08/04/2025

When we see people with running overuse injuries, they typically have relative weaknesses that are significantly contributing to their injury and pain.

To improve a relative weakness, we must strengthen the muscles by exposing them to demands that are more than what they typically are exposed to.

We do this initially by targeting these muscle groups with specific strength exercises that isolate the muscle groups.

Typically, our clients haven't been doing isolated strength for the muscle group recently - so our most common initial prescription and progression goes something like this:

1. At the beginning, emphasize daily frequency. Adjust exercise volume so you don't feel any worse the next day.

2. Once you can do these strength exercises daily without increased pain the next day, start to slowly increase volume by pushing into a little more fatigue.

3. Once you have had success with increased volume, you're likely ready for more intensity/challenge/resistance. When you increase intensity, decrease frequency to allow for full recovery.

07/31/2025

Having a limp does not always mean you need to take a break from running!

If your injury warms up fully within a few minutes of jogging, it likely is due to muscle soreness.

We actually encourage runners dealing with muscle soreness to stay active in order to promote further muscle adaptation.

But watch out for warning signs!

If your injury gets worse throughout the run and feels the best when you are fully recovered, your injury could be due to bone stress.

We do not recommend you push through pain with these symptoms as doing so could worsen your injury.

07/28/2025

Did you know?

Changing your running form is more likely to increase your chance of injury!

Why?

We are all unique. We all move differently.

As we run more, our body adapts to the unique distribution of load that our gait creates.

Changing your gait modifies this distributed load. Your body will not be prepared for this change at your current running volume.

We do gait analyses, but usually do not recommend that someone change their gait because there are usually much easier ways to improve their body's durability and injury risk!

07/25/2025

If you want to stay injury free, make sure to get your Z's!

If you are sleeping less than 7 hours per night you are 51% more likely to get injured.

Sleeping impacts so many aspects of your overall health, including tissue recovery and remodeling, stress and hormone regulation, reaction time and coordination, and pain sensitivity.

Aim for at least 7-9 hours per night- make sure to take extra care to get sleep during high training phases or when returning from injury.

Find Your Steady State (FYSS) has advanced analytics that allow you to get the most out of your running data. Using FYSS, you can see overall trends in your recovery. ty.

Here are some ways you can maximize sleep quality AND quantity:
- Wind down 30-60 minutes before bed
- Limit screen time
- Fuel and hydrate well
- Keep a consistent sleep schedule
- Adjust training if sleep is poor
- Use recovery tracking apps like Find Your Steady State to track your sleep and other recovery variables.

Find Your Steady State (FYSS) has advanced analytics that allow you to get the most out of your running data. Using FYSS you can see overall trends in your recovery.

For example, you can observe trends in your sleep and your training load and see if load should be reduced to minimize injury risk!

07/22/2025

Want to avoid the rehab process altogether?

Four Easy Ways to Prevent Injury:

1. Eat enough food:

If you are consistently running mileage, this is likely more than you think!

2. Go to bed early

Sleeping 8+ hours is key in order to avoid injury.

3. Be flexible with your training

If you are feeling extra fatigued or sore adjust workout intensity/volume accordingly- even if it means not hitting the paces/mileage you wanted to hit.

4. Rotate your shoes

Different shoes produce slightly different gaits. Rotating your shoes will result in less repetitive stress on your body.

07/18/2025

Running PSA 📢📢📢:

Running is not sufficient on its own to keep our bones healthy and strong.

Running gives us musculoskeletal strength through generating impact.

However, your body will adapt to this impact if you are running a lot and further stimuli should be introduced to be adapted to.

Address

24 Romasco Lane
Portland, ME
04101

Website

https://www.steadystatehealth.com/

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