"Trying to weight the trade-off between what these tools are doing for us
versus to us is hard to parse" ​
-Tobias Rose-Stockwell

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Runners need reflection, not comparison, when dealing with an injury.

Strava recently ​​announced​​ the ability to document "physical therapy" as a way to say "I showed up today, I did the work, and I'm still moving forward," according to their CPO, Matt Salazar.

My cynical side laughs.

Strava is valued as a multi-billion-dollar company with hundreds of millions of users. Adding PT to the platform isn’t some altruistic act, but a way to keep athletes tethered to their app.

This announcement does allow us to discuss an important concept with patients.
Their relationship with social media.

Do your platforms really care about you?

On the surface, posting that you did two exercises and a cold plunge for your mild knee pain isn't a big deal.

But minor aches and pains are drastically different from the challenges endurance athletes face with bone stress injuries and other long-term injuries.

There are a few reasons I regularly advise patients to pause Strava and log out of IG and TikTok.

Intra-personal comparison

Running is a sport of numbers. You know how fast, how far, and how often you run. Those numbers change with time off.

It's impossible to forget someone's definition of "running", but you don't need constant reminders of your previous self from these platforms.

Inter-personal comparison

If you're a serious runner, your feed is full of endurance athletes. Is seeing your training partners and rivals at their perceived best really helpful as you work through a rough patch? Probably not.

A false sense of community

Social platforms are often marketed as ways to connect with others. This may have been true in the early 2000s, but it is an inaccurate description of the contentious environment that apps foster in 2026.

When you go through rough times, a strong community buoys you until things settle. Long-term injuries can be a significant event for athletes who hold running as an important part of their lives.

But let's be honest, true support comes from a small number of personal relationships, not kudos, likes, or shares on an app.

Unnecessary obligation

Recovering from an injury requires behavior change. And behavior change is hard. Often, runners have to adopt a new approach to training, lifting, nutrition, or life that differs from their normal routine.

Now they need to document that? Seems like a bad idea.

Adding more always changes the environment

My feeling towards athletes' social media habits is the same reason I don't post patient sessions on my socials. Sharing a session could be a great promotional strategy to attract more patients, but it immediately alters the patient-therapist encounter.

We've now added unnecessary expectations to an already dicey situation.

• What if their recovery backslides?
• What if they get another injury shortly after the first?
• What if the athlete feels pressured to document an ideal recovery versus their messy reality?

That compulsion to post can easily be justified as a sign of progress, making them feel they've solved the problem, and avoiding the more sensitive topics a runner should investigate when dealing with a long-term injury.

I've been working with athletes for a long time, getting a glimpse behind the curtains of many messy situations presented in a different light on social media.

Significant injuries require an introspective investigation, often diving into sensitive and personal topics, such as someone's relationship with training or nutrition.

It's hard to give yourself space to think. It's hard to acknowledge that life isn't going the way you want. It's hard to acknowledge your approach to exercise, and competition needs to change.

Focusing externally on sharing numbers, reels, and carousels about your "idealistic" recovery can create a disconnect between perception and reality, distracting you from addressing the actual issues at hand.

The compulsive need to either act as if life is going as planned or to share an idealized version of themselves ends up being an unnecessary variable weighing down progress.

Many of my patients ignore my advice on social media (and anything else). Athletes will do what they want.

But if you work with patients, you have a duty to acknowledge if social media is negatively affecting recovery or the care you're aiming to provide.