Feldman Files, Part 3

Running's "sweet spot" = 4 times per week

In Volume 3 of the Feldman Files, we ask physical therapist Justin Feldman about best practices in training.

While he discusses the usual variables of volume and intensity, one very interesting topic he discusses is the frequency of running – in other words, how many days per week you should run. Justin reaches a very specific conclusion: Four (4) days per week is the “sweet spot” for injury prevention.

Running more than that increases injury risk; interestingly enough, running LESS than that also comes with risk – he refers to it as a bell curve.

Again, my questions are in bold and Justin’s answers follow. As always, his insights are outstanding. I hope you are enjoying his information and his approach.

Do you have any general “rules of thumb” in terms of increasing training volume (mileage) and/or how and when to inject “down” weeks (in terms of mileage) into training?

When it comes to running (and, to be totally honest, most sports or activities), if we look at the variables that you can manipulate for training, you have:

• Your intensity

• Your duration

• Your frequency that you run

The biggest rule of thumb that I will talk to people about is that you can only manipulate one variable at a time. For somebody who is newer at running, the first thing we want to implement is the frequency that they run, because studies have shown that injury prevalence decreases if you are running at least four days a week. As you start to go more or less, you start to slide off either side of that bell curve. Before we do anything else, we want to make sure you’re running four days a week.

The next thing is: If you then decide that you want to increase your duration, then we want to make sure that, as you increase your duration, you’re not also increasing your frequency. If we can build you up to four days a week at an hour per day, then the next step might be to slightly increase the amount you’re running each day.

At the same time, we don’t want to add a fifth day into the equation, or we wouldn’t want to add something like speed work into that. Once you get to a point where you have increased your frequency and the duration is to a point that we’re happy with, then we can start to manipulate intensity. It’s important that it gets done in that order so that your body can slowly adapt and be prepared for the load.

There are so many recovery modalities out there now. How can an average runner sort out which ones are beneficial and which ones are frivolous?

I think this one comes back to:

• Are you sleeping 8 to 9 hours a day?

• Are you able to have a solid amount of fluid, roughly your body weight in ounces of water per day?

• Are you getting enough nutrition to adequately support your training?

I think if you’re not doing those three, then nothing else that you see out there will really matter. I think after a little while, if you’re checking all of those boxes, then some things will work for some people, but all things won’t work for everybody. It’s really a matter of which ones people feel help them the most.

But in my experience, the people who are checking all of those three boxes are few and far between. Everybody should stay off the Instagram trends and make sure they get enough sleep, have enough water, and eat enough food.

Up next: The fourth (and final) installment of the Feldman Files will rate the prevalence of running injuries AND dive into a very contentious debate over whether heat or ice is better for treatment and recovery.

Justin Feldman, PT, DPT - Founded Feldman Physical Therapy and Performance in 2013. Now, I get to work with a team of 4 amazing therapists who all share my vision and mission of providing high-level care to professional athletes and the everyday athletes of the Hudson Valley. A lifelong athlete, I went on to row in college and moved into running and triathlon after grad school. I opened Feldman PT and Performance to create an environment where therapists can focus on their patients’ needs and help them create a plan to achieve their goals, improve their performance, and prevent future injuries.