This video by Dr. Christopher Segler explains about how you can choose a running surface that will decrease the stress and strain on your foot. How running uphill or downhill or along a side slope can be used to your advantage to either deliberately increase or decrease the stress to your foot and perhaps even an injured structure. Obviously if you can decrease the stress to an injured structure you can theoretically heal faster.
The one component of running surfaces that we were did not address in that episode was how hard a certain kind of surface can be on your feet. So today we're going to talk about concrete, asphalt, grass, sand and all the different running surfaces. Because running surfaces aren't all created equal. Some running surfaces are hard. Some are soft. Some are smooth and predictable and others are rough and irregular.
Considering the different traits of the path you choose is important if you are hoping to avoid injury, or if you're returning to running after an injury and you don't want to get re-injured.