How Physical Therapy Can Improve Walking & Running Performance

By Dr. Jessica Jackson, PT, DPT · September 23, 2026

Are pain or an injury keeping you from walking or running the way you want?

Having trouble increasing your distance, improving your pace, or getting back to the activities you enjoy?

Physical therapy can help you move better, feel better, and perform better.

Start With How You Move

As a Certified Champion Performance Specialist, I use a comprehensive movement assessment to identify areas that may be limiting your walking or running performance.

Your body is great at finding the path of least resistance. Sometimes, that means compensating for an area that isn’t moving or functioning properly.

Over time, these compensations can affect your movement patterns, performance, and even contribute to pain.

The area that hurts isn’t always the area causing the problem.

By identifying and addressing these movement limitations, we can reduce unnecessary compensations, decrease pain, and help you get more out of your body.

From Recovery to Performance

Whether you’re recovering from an injury or simply want to perform at your best, our approach focuses on four key goals:

• Restore — Get you back to your baseline after an injury.
• Optimize — Address mobility restrictions, strength imbalances, compensations, and inefficient movement patterns.
• Enhance — Build mobility, strength, power, agility, and endurance to improve performance.
• Maintain — Give you the knowledge and tools to keep moving well long after treatment ends.

Running-Specific Assessment

As an Institute of Clinical Excellence (ICE)-trained clinician, I can also evaluate common running faults through an individualized running assessment on a treadmill.

This allows us to look at how you move while running and identify opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce stress on the body, and help you reach your running goals.

Personalized Treatment

Your treatment plan is built around your body, your goals, and your activity level.

Depending on your needs, treatment may include:

• Dry needling
• Cupping
• Manual therapy
• Therapeutic exercise
• Strength and conditioning
• Mobility training
• Running and movement retraining
• Individualized exercise prescription

The goal isn’t simply to treat your pain.

It’s to help you understand why you’re having trouble, restore how you move, and give you the tools to keep performing at your best.

Ready to Move Better?

Whether you’re trying to return to running after an injury, increase your walking distance, improve your pace, or simply move without pain, physical therapy can help you build a stronger foundation for performance.

Let’s get you moving better—and help you get back to doing what you love.