The Runners' Hub Buxton

18/08/2026

Over the last few weeks I’ve talked about Achilles problems, ITB pain, plantar fasciopathy, proximal hamstring and gluteal tendinopathy.
They’re all different injuries, affecting different tissues, and they don’t all need treating in exactly the same way. But there’s one thing that keeps cropping up…
What are you asking your body to do — and is it currently able to cope with it?
Getting injured doesn’t automatically mean you’re weak, your running style is wrong or you’re simply getting too old to run! Quite often, something has just tipped the balance.
Maybe you’ve increased your mileage, added more hills, started running faster, introduced some extra strength work, had less sleep or recovery… or, as is often the case, done several of those things at the same time.
And that’s why stopping running completely isn’t always the answer.
Sometimes we just need to reduce the load for a while, work out what’s contributing to the problem, settle things down and then gradually build the tissue back up so that it can cope with what you actually want it to do.
Because ultimately, the aim isn’t just to get you pain-free.
It’s to get you back doing the things you want to do — and make your body better able to cope with them.
That's really what good rehabilitation is about: not just getting you pain-free, but making your body capable of doing the things you want it to do.
The full Injury Series will be back soon but I'm giving both you and me a little rest from daily posts first! Comment below what you'd like to see next xx

14/08/2026

Today I'm showing a couple of simple exercises to start loading the glutes, plus one very common glute exercise that isn't always the best choice when the tendon is irritable.
The goal isn't to avoid load. It's to find the right load, at the right time, and build from there.
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The Runners' Hub Buxton

13/08/2026

GLUTEAL TENDINOPATHY – DAY 4: WHERE DOES MASSAGE FIT IN?
When someone comes to me with gluteal tendinopathy, I’m not just interested in the painful spot on the outside of the hip.
One of the things I commonly find is secondary muscular tightness and guarding around the hip, pelvis and lower back. When something hurts, we naturally start moving differently. Other muscles may work harder, movement can become more guarded, and before long you can have a whole collection of tight, uncomfortable tissues surrounding the original problem.
This is where hands-on treatment and massage can be really useful.
Massage isn't going to magically “repair” a gluteal tendon — and I think it's important to be clear about that. The strongest evidence for actually improving gluteal tendinopathy is still appropriate load management and progressive strengthening.
But that doesn't make hands-on treatment pointless.
If the surrounding glutes, TFL, hip rotators, quads or lower-back musculature have become tight, sore or overworked, massage can be used to reduce that secondary muscular discomfort, make movement feel easier and help someone tolerate their rehabilitation better.
And sometimes that immediate change matters enormously.
If you're sore every time you move, sleeping badly because your hip aches and becoming increasingly protective of the area, it's much harder to exercise confidently. Hands-on treatment can therefore be a useful part of the process.

My aim is to look at the whole picture:
What's tight? What's compensating? What's weak? What's being overloaded? And what can I change to make movement easier while we progressively rebuild the tendon?
That may include massage and other soft-tissue techniques, mobility work, advice around running and daily activities, and where appropriate shockwave therapy. But ultimately we still need to load the tendon and make it stronger.

Tomorrow I'll finish the week by getting practical, showing some of the exercises I use to start rebuilding gluteal strength and tendon capacity.

12/08/2026

GLUTEAL TENDINOPATHY – DAY 3: HOW MUCH PAIN IS OK?
One of the hardest things with tendinopathy is knowing whether pain means “I need to stop” or simply “this tendon is sensitive to what I'm asking it to do.”
And those are not the same thing.
With gluteal tendinopathy, complete rest is not the answer. Tendons need load to maintain and rebuild their strength. The skill is finding the amount of load your tendon can currently tolerate.
USE PAIN AS FEEDBACK, NOT A STOP SIGN
A simple 0–10 scale can be really useful.
0–3/10: generally a comfortable/tolerable response.
4–6/10: caution, you may need to modify the exercise, distance or intensity.
7+/10: you're probably asking too much of an irritable tendon.
But here's the important bit:
Don't only judge the pain while you're exercising.
Gluteal tendons can have a delayed response to load. How does the hip feel later that evening? Can you lie comfortably in bed? And crucially, how does it feel the following morning?
An increase in night pain or next-day symptoms is often a much better clue that yesterday's load exceeded the tendon’s current capacity.
So we're looking for a trend of same or better the following day, rather than repeatedly provoking a flare and starting again.
WHAT ABOUT PAIN RELIEF?
Pain-relieving strategies can absolutely have a place.
Heat or cold, changing your sleeping position, using a pillow between the knees, temporarily reducing hills or stairs, avoiding sitting with crossed legs and breaking up prolonged sitting can all make an irritable hip much more manageable.
And sometimes painkillers can help you remain comfortable enough to move and begin rehabilitation. If you're unsure what medication is appropriate for you, that's a conversation for your pharmacist or GP.
A WORD ABOUT ANTI-INFLAMMATORIES
This is an important distinction.
Tendinopathy isn't simply an “inflamed tendon”.
The pathology is more complex than that, and NHS guidance specifically notes that gluteal tendons in tendinopathy are not normally inflamed. That's one reason why simply resting and repeatedly relying on anti-inflammatory medication doesn't address the underlying problem.
That doesn't mean nobody with hip pain should ever take ibuprofen or another NSAID — they are legitimate medicines and can be appropriate for some people and conditions.
It means don't make “getting rid of the inflammation” your rehabilitation strategy.
The long-term goal is different:
Reduce excessive compression then manage load then progressively strengthen & rebuild the tendon’s capacity.
And for runners, ultimately we need that tendon capable of tolerating running load again, rather than simply making it temporarily pain-free.
Tomorrow I'll look at what I assess when somebody comes into clinic with suspected gluteal tendinopathy and the treatment options I can use alongside a progressive rehabilitation programme.

11/08/2026

GLUTEAL TENDINOPATHY — WHAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING INSIDE THE TENDON?
Yesterday we looked at how gluteal tendinopathy might feel. Today I want to go a little deeper, because tendinopathy isn't simply an “inflamed tendon”.
A healthy tendon is an incredibly strong structure. It is made predominantly from densely organised collagen fibres, arranged to transmit force between muscle and bone. The cells living within that structure — called tenocytes — constantly respond to the mechanical loads we put through the tendon.
And that's important, because load itself isn't the enemy.
Appropriate loading actually tells a tendon to adapt and become capable of handling what we're asking of it.
The problem comes when the load placed on the tendon exceeds its current capacity to adapt and recover — perhaps because you've suddenly increased your running, added more hills or speed, changed training frequency, or simply haven't had enough recovery between sessions.
At this point some fascinating things start happening at a microscopic level.
The tendon cells change their activity. They produce more proteoglycans, molecules which attract and bind water. The tendon can therefore become more hydrated and swollen, and the normally very orderly collagen structure can begin to become more separated and disorganised.
If excessive loading continues, we can see progressively greater changes within the extracellular matrix and collagen organisation. More established tendinopathy may involve altered collagen composition, increased vascularity and changes in tendon cells themselves.
This is why I don't particularly like the idea of telling somebody that their tendon is simply “damaged”.
Tendon pathology is better thought of as a continuum. A tendon can move from a normal state into a reactive state, through tendon dysrepair and, in some cases, towards more degenerative structural change. Importantly, early reactive changes have considerable potential to settle when the loading environment is changed.
And here's another really important point:
The amount of structural change in a tendon doesn't correlate neatly with the amount of pain someone experiences.
You can have significant structural abnormalities and relatively little pain, or considerable pain from a highly reactive tendon without extensive degeneration. Pain, structure and function are related — but they are not the same thing.
So when someone comes to me with lateral hip pain, my question isn't simply:
“What structure hurts?”
It's also:
“What has changed that this tendon can no longer tolerate?”
That's why treatment isn't just about making something painful feel better. Ultimately we need to identify the loads driving the problem, settle an irritable tendon and then progressively rebuild its capacity.
Tomorrow we'll look at what you can start doing yourself, including something that often surprises people with gluteal tendinopathy:
sometimes stretching that sore hip is exactly the wrong thing to do.

10/08/2026

GLUTEAL TENDINOPATHY — could this be the cause of your hip pain?
This week we’re moving around from the hamstrings to the outside of the hip and looking at another problem I see regularly in runners — gluteal tendinopathy.
One of the reasons it can hang around for so long is that people don’t necessarily recognise it as a tendon problem.
You might simply notice that your hip has become uncomfortable when you run. Perhaps hills have started bothering it. Maybe it aches afterwards, or you’ve developed that incredibly annoying problem where lying on one side in bed hurts and you’re constantly trying to find a comfortable position.
Sometimes it isn’t particularly dramatic at all. It can begin as a ni**le on the outside of the hip that gradually becomes harder to ignore.
And this is where people can inadvertently make things worse.
A sore hip often feels as though it needs stretching — but with gluteal tendinopathy, repeatedly stretching the outside of the hip can actually increase compression of the irritated tendon. Likewise, simply stopping everything until it goes away isn’t necessarily the answer either.
The key is understanding what the tendon is reacting to, reducing the things that are irritating it, and then gradually rebuilding its capacity to tolerate load.
For runners in particular, there’s another important question:
Why did it become irritated in the first place?
Was it increased mileage? More hills? A change in pace? Recovery? Strength? Running mechanics? Or something completely unrelated to running?
That’s what we’ll unpack over the rest of this week.
I’ll be covering why gluteal tendinopathy develops, the surprisingly ordinary things that can aggravate it, what you can do yourself, and how I assess and treat it in clinic — before finishing the week with some practical exercises.
So if you’ve been rubbing the outside of your hip thinking “what on earth have I done to this?” — follow along this week. This one may be particularly relevant to you.

07/08/2026

07/08/2026

DAY 5 PHT - bit of a long one but I wanted to give you some extra detail here so you can save and share. Don't forget if you have done all of this and the pain still isn't going away I offer shockwave therapy which is really great for supporting tendon healing.
Come see me at or get in touch www.therunnershub.co.uk
Thanks for following 😀

06/08/2026

DAY 4 Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy: When Rest Isn't Enough...
One of the comments I hear most in clinic is:
"I've rested it for weeks, but every time I start running again the pain comes straight back."
The problem is that tendons don't simply heal because we stop using them.
In fact, complete rest often leaves them less prepared for the demands of running.
That's why my approach isn't just about easing the pain, it's about understanding why the tendon became overloaded in the first place and helping it become strong enough to cope again.
A big part of that is a carefully planned rehabilitation programme...
But for more persistent cases, I also use Shockwave Therapy.
💥 Why shockwave?
Shockwave delivers high-energy acoustic waves into the injured tendon. Research has shown it can help stimulate the tendon's natural healing response, encourage new blood vessel formation and reduce pain, making it easier to progress with the strengthening exercises that are essential for long-term recovery.
What it isn't is a magic wand.
Shockwave won't undo months of overload in one session, and if anyone tells you otherwise, be sceptical.
Where it really comes into its own is when it's combined with:
A thorough assessment to identify the underlying causes.
Progressive loading to build tendon capacity.
Hands-on treatment where appropriate. Advice on training load, sitting tolerance and returning to running safely.
That combination is where I consistently see the best outcomes.
If you've been living with that stubborn pain around the sitting bone for months and nothing seems to shift it, it may be time to stop chasing symptoms and start treating the cause.
📍 At The Runners' Hub, every treatment plan is tailored to the individual. Whether shockwave is right for you is something we decide together after a full assessment—not because it's the latest gadget, but because it's the right tool for the job.
➡️ Tomorrow I'll wrap up this week's series with a short video bringing everything together, answering the questions I get asked most often and demonstrating a few practical tips you can start using straight away.

05/08/2026

DAY 3 looking at Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy: Little Changes That Can Make a Big Difference
When you've got pain around your sitting bone, it's often not the running that's the biggest problem...
It's everything else!
Long car journeys, sitting at your desk, driving to work or even trying to get comfortable in bed can all become frustrating.
Here are a few simple things I often recommend to my clients: Avoid sitting for long periods. Try to stand up and move every 20–30 minutes. Your tendon doesn't like being compressed for hours at a time.
Use a cushion. A soft cushion or wedge can reduce pressure on the tendon when you're sitting. If driving aggravates it, don't be afraid to take regular breaks on longer journeys.
Sleeping position matters. If you're a side sleeper, try placing a pillow between your knees. This can reduce tension around the pelvis and hips and often makes the area feel more comfortable overnight.
Keep moving. Complete rest rarely helps a tendon. Short walks and gentle movement throughout the day are usually far better than sitting still waiting for it to heal.
Don't rush back into stretching. It often feels like the hamstring is "tight", but that sensation is usually coming from an irritated tendon rather than a muscle that needs stretching. In the early stages, aggressive stretching can simply make the tendon more sensitive.
Respect the 24-hour rule. It's normal to feel your tendon while exercising, but ask yourself this question the following morning:
"Is it back to where it was yesterday?"
If the answer is yes, you've probably judged your load well.
If it's noticeably worse, your tendon is telling you it wasn't quite ready for what you asked of it.
Recovery from proximal hamstring tendinopathy is rarely about finding one magic exercise. More often, it's the combination of lots of small, sensible decisions—day after day—that gets you back to pain-free running.
Tomorrow I'll show you how I assess and treat proximal hamstring tendinopathy in clinic, including why I rarely focus on the hamstring alone.