My physical therapy is extremely expensive and takes time away from work can you just do your own exercises

Agreed. I am in PT school right now and all our situations/educations are primarily elderly and pretty much 0 athletes.

Same as distance training. A coach is necessary for some and others not so much.

Part of the reason for that is PT programs are graded by how many of their graduates pass their boards. You’re not going to have much on the exam regarding running injuries. That’s because the vast majority of PTs end up in geriatrics, with a few going to practice in pediatrics. There might be a question here or there about ACL rehab and what not, but most PT programs are set up to prepare you for your boards.

If you’re interested in specializing in sports rehab, then you need to start finding places to do your fieldwork experiences at and learn as much you can during your on site clinical.

PTs are more than capable of handling athletes and distance runners, it’s just a more specialized area of treatment so people need to do their due diligence when seeking out a therapy professional.

I fortunately got into Kaiser PT in the Mission Bay area when the Warriors moved to San Francisco(I was in there one day with Klay). Absolutely amazing doctors there, all the right equipment and I learned a lot from them and more than I would have from just the internet.

I have been to others though that seem like they are basically doing a google search.

Just literally do the exercises they teach you and maintain the counter muscles in your body. A good PT is like a coach, they will teach you the fundamentals but it is up to you to keep it going on your own and stay out of therapy.

I think there is a much larger problem in that the entire health care system, from MDs with sports med specialties to chiros who do ART, Graston, etc. to massage therapists to PTs, really has no organized and evidence based approached to soft tissue injuries. MDs tend to not invest much time into the modalities of soft tissue treatment because MDs make money by doing surgery and do not want to waste office visits trying to get a runner through Achilles tendonitis. Some chiros invest a good bit of time learning soft tissue manipulation techniques and can be quite good at it. But it is very hit or miss depending on the chiro and there are far too many who will do a little Graston and then tell you you are out of alignment and try to get you to buy 10 weeks of back cracking appointments. PTs are very limited in that they generally do not have training in soft tissue manipulation and just know how to measure range of motion and strength and prescribe exercises and stretching to try to return full functionality and address imbalances. But the PT literature is one size fits all.