Our rehab protocol for returning to running after any injury is a walk/run scheme. Basically, you divide your running into 5 minute chunks. The first progression is to run for 30 seconds, walk for 4 minutes, 30 seconds. We generally recommend no more than 6 "chunks" though (for 30 minutes of total activity). Frequency of walk/running is generally 3 times a week. We caution against more, but that judgement call is a decision that is made between the physician, the athlete and their coaches (if there are any) based on their current state of fitness, and severity of injury. If it's less than 3 times a week, the you will not likely progress every single week. And that's okay because there's no concrete schedule in this program. The goal is to return you to running, period; not to return you to running at the cost of your health.
After a week, you get to increase your running time by thirty seconds, again, provided you have not experienced pain or other 'injury symptoms'.
You can increase your running time by 30 seconds a week, for a maximum activity time of 30 minutes until you're running for 4 minutes 30 seconds, and walking for 30 seconds. At this point, you can start to increase your total time if you want to, by adding an extra 5 minute chunk. So, as an example, if you've reached the 4 minute 30 seconds run, 30 seconds walk, the following week, you can run for 30 minutes and then add on another 5 minute chunk of 4 minutes 30 seconds run, 30 seconds walk.
You can scale this progression up or down as you require, but have a low threshold for regressing to a previous "chunk" scheme or not progressing to a more advanced "chunk" scheme if you're not sure if you're ready to move on or if you have symptoms.
Additionally, it is not recommended that you modify the walk/run ratio within a workout unless you are having pain. This recommedation is there so that you do not try to advance yourself more quickly than you should be because you feel that you can always increase your walk portion if you start to experience pain.
You should be pain-free throughout all of your walk/runs.
The rationale behind this protocol is that most of our athletes, after having sustained an injury that has required them to stop play/activity/training, require both acclimatization to the activity itself as well as cardiovascular re-conditioning (since they have de-trained through their injury and recovery period). It is a gradual return-to-play protocol with a self-regulatory component that allows the player to progress in accordance to their specific symptoms, thus ensuring that adequate, but not over-loading of the injured structures is occuring for optimal rehab and return to play.
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