Repetitive Stress Injury: How Did This Happen to Me?

A Runner's Story of Injury and Recovery While Living in Japan

There I was doing another 10k training run through the hills of Northern Japan, and suddenly my knee started to hurt. I thought it was just a little momentary pain, but it persisted. I stopped. I waited a few days and all was well, so I started running again. The pain came back even stronger. This definitely wasn't good. I went to the doctor and he said, in rather good English, "Your knee is stressed out and you have tendinitis." I asked the doctor, "How did this happen?" He said, "It is a repetitive stress injury (RSI). You are doing too much exercise one way." Since I had been an active athlete since junior high school and throughout university I understood the terminology, but as I was explaining this to a friend who didn't have the same background knowledge as me; he asked, "What is repetitive stress injury?" I told him, "It happens when you overuse a particular area of the body, placing undue stress on it thus weakening it to the point of injury." I also gave him a more relative example. He likes long bike rides so I said, "You remember that time your knee started hurting on your bike ride?" "Yeah," he said. "Well that was probably from riding too much. Your knee was going in the same motion all the time and it just got tired. And when our muscles and joints get tired that means they are getting worn down, and that leads to injury. In a way, your body was telling you to take a rest so it could fix the problem."

In speaking with the doctor I asked, "How do I fix this because I love running?" The doctor said, "First, rest. Take about 6 to 8 weeks off from running." I flipped out!! I was like, "6 TO 8 WEEKS. That is way too long to be inactive. Are you sure?" He said, "If you want to run again take at least 6 weeks off, and I recommend 8 for full recovery." I spat out, "What am I going to do for 8 weeks?" The doctor shot back, "That doesn't mean you have to be inactive. Actually you should probably be more active."