RunTok Is Injured and That’s Exactly Why You Shouldn’t Train Like Them.

If you spend any time on running TikTok or Instagram right now, you’ll have noticed a theme.

Everyone is injured.

Shin splints. Stress fractures. “Niggles” that are very clearly not niggles anymore. Yet the content keeps coming. Treadmill sessions with taped-up ankles. “Easy runs” that look anything but easy. Long runs done through pain, followed by a reel explaining why rest days are overrated.

RunTok is injured and somehow, it’s being normalised.

The problem with RunTok training culture

A lot of running content online comes from people whose job is literally to run. Or at least, to create content about running.

They usually don’t have a full-time job and if they do, it revolves around fitness. That means they can schedule training and recovery however they like and even their injuries become content.

That doesn’t make them bad people. But it does make their training wildly unrelatable for most runners.

If you are juggling work, family, social life, mental load, sleep and running squeezed into the edges of your day, you cannot recover like someone whose day revolves around training.

Trying to copy that volume, intensity, or frequency is a fast track to burnout or injury. Or both.

Training through injury is not a badge of honour

One of the most worrying trends I’m seeing is how casually people talk about running through injury.

“Just pushing through.”
“It loosens up after mile three.”
“It’s fine once I’m warmed up.”

If pain disappears once you’re warm, that doesn’t mean it’s fine. It means your body has temporarily masked the problem.

Pain is information. Not weakness. Not something to override for content.

I’ve been running for over ten years, and I’ve seen this cycle play out time and time again. The runners who struggle most long-term aren’t the ones who take a few weeks off. They’re the ones who never let themselves stop.

Running through injury doesn’t make you tougher. It usually just makes the injury louder, longer, and more frustrating.

The bit that doesn’t get talked about enough? Running injured messes with your head. You stop trusting your body. Every run feels anxious. You’re constantly scanning for pain. That is not joyful running.

When “wellness” is really just not knowing how to stop

This is where things get uncomfortable, but it matters.

Over the years, I’ve watched exercise addiction quietly rebrand itself as wellness. High volume training gets praised. Rest gets framed as weakness. Pushing through pain is seen as commitment.

One of the biggest tell-tale signs is an inability to stop when there’s pain.

Running hurts, so running stops. But instead of resting, the exercise just switches. Suddenly it’s cycling. Or swimming. Or strength work. I’m not even talking gentle movement to keep things ticking over. I’m talking 50-100 mile rides. Coast to coast cycles. Huge endurance efforts framed as recovery.

That isn’t recovery. That’s just more stress on a body that’s already asking for a pause.

Movement can absolutely support healing, but only when it’s genuinely low load, intentional, and temporary. If the volume stays high and the intensity stays high, the nervous system never gets the message that it’s safe to repair.

Rest isn’t replaced by a different sport. It’s replaced by rest.

Social media makes this harder, because switching discipline still looks productive. It still looks impressive. It still gets applause. But behind the scenes, the body is still exhausted.

Rest is training, not a failure

Rest days are not what you do when you’ve “failed” at being disciplined.

They are part of the plan.

Adaptation happens when you rest, not when you run. Muscles rebuild. Tendons strengthen. Your nervous system resets. Your motivation recovers.

Skipping rest doesn’t make you more committed. It usually just means you’re borrowing from future energy, future motivation, and future health.

And if you’re already stressed, under-slept, or mentally overloaded, rest becomes even more important.

You don’t need to earn rest – you need to respect it.

You don’t need to run every day to be a real runner

Somehow, daily running has become the gold standard online.

If you’re not running every day, you’re “not serious”.
Miss a run, skip a double and it’s treated like you’ve failed at running entirely

This is nonsense.

Most runners do brilliantly on three or four runs a week. Especially if those runs are consistent, well-paced, and supported by rest.

Running fewer days does not mean you care less. It often means you’re training smarter.

Consistency over months and years will always beat intensity for a few weeks followed by injury.

Fill your feed with normal runners

One of the most powerful things you can do is curate your feed.

If your social media makes you feel behind, lazy, or like you’re not doing enough, that’s a sign something needs changing.

Follow runners who look like you and live like you, running before work, after work, or squeezing it in between life admin. Who take rest days without guilt and talk about missed runs without shame.

People who train sensibly, adjust plans when life gets busy, and still improve.

People like me.

I run. I train. I’ve run a lot of marathons. But I also have a job, responsibilities and a life that isn’t built around content creation. I don’t run through injuries for the sake of a reel. I rest when I need to and I still get results.

That’s the kind of running most of us should be normalising.

You don’t see the aftermath online

What you rarely see on RunTok is the long-term cost.

You don’t see the physio bills. The months off running. The frustration of starting again. The quiet panic when a familiar pain returns. The loss of confidence.

You see the highlights. The workouts. The races. The aesthetic foam rolling clips.

Not the rehab boredom, the setbacks, or the injuries that end seasons.

Comparing your sensible, sustainable training to someone else’s highlight reel is deeply unfair to yourself.

Sensible training is not boring, it’s sustainable

Training sensibly doesn’t mean you’re not ambitious.

It means you want to still be running next year and the year after that.

It means listening to your body. Adjusting when needed. Taking rest seriously. And understanding that progress is not linear.

Some weeks you’ll smash it. Some weeks you’ll just tick the box. Both count. The goal is to build a running habit that supports your life, not one that takes over or breaks you.

Pain is not part of the plan

If your feed is full of injured runners training through pain, let this be your reminder.

You don’t need to copy them.
You don’t need to try to keep up.
And you don’t need to earn your rest.

You need a plan that fits your life, one that prioritises recovery and keeps you consistent. Most importantly, running is meant to add to your life, not drain it.

RunTok might be injured.

You don’t have to be.