When Is It Safe to Start Loading a Stress Fracture Without Making It Worse?

About this episode

Dr. Christopher Segler discusses when it is safe for runners to start loading a stress fracture and the common mistakes made during recovery.

When is it actually safe to start loading a stress fracture again? In this episode, Dr. Christopher Segler explains how runners can think about progressive bone loading without making the injury worse. He covers why “just rest” is incomplete advice, why pain relief does not equal full healing, the 3 phases of stress fracture recovery, and the biggest mistake runners make when they try to return too soon.

People in this episode

Host: Christopher Segler

Topics covered

• stress fracture
• bone loading
• injury recovery
• running
• pain relief

Keywords

• progressive loading
• healing
• recovery phases

More episodes of Doc On The Run Podcast

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• Understanding Plantar Plate Stress vs Strain vs Sprain in Healing Runners · April 14, 2026 · 19 min
• How to Make Decisions When Your MRI and Doctors Disagree About Peroneal Tendon Pain · April 5, 2026 · 14 min
• What is More Useful than X-Ray Grading of Stress Fractures for Runners? · March 19, 2026 · 16 min
• 3 Critical Stress Reaction First Aid Steps for Runners · March 12, 2026 · 14 min