ProActive Chiropractic is a sports chiropractic practice in downtown San Francisco, and running is the body it was built around. If you run the Embarcadero before work, train for the SF Marathon, or log trail miles in the Marin Headlands, this is your practice. The diagnostic standard is the one Dr. Cohen built working with U.S. Track and Field athletes: it finds the mechanism driving your injury, not just the spot that hurts.
The diagnostic system was built on running bodies
Most sports chiropractors see runners. A handful specialize in them. Dr. Cohen built his entire diagnostic system around them. Twenty years working with U.S. Track and Field athletes at Hayward Field, the most important track and field venue in the country and home of the Olympic Team Trials, taught him to read a stride the way most clinicians read an X-ray.
A running injury is rarely a local failure. It is a chain that loads unevenly, and the place that hurts is usually paying for a problem somewhere else. That is the whole job here: find the mechanism, not just the location.
The four we see most
Runners do not search for "running injury." They search for the thing that hurts. These are the four that walk through the door most often, and what is usually really going on.
Heel and arch pain, worst on the first steps of the morning. Usually a calf, ankle, and loading problem long before it is a foot problem.
Patellofemoral pain around or under the kneecap. The knee is where it shows; the hip and foot usually set it up.
Deep buttock pain that can mimic sciatica. Often a hip that is not sharing load with the rest of the chain.
High hamstring or origin pain that lingers and rebuilds every speed session. A tendon and loading issue, not a stretch-it-more issue.
We treat the rest of the running list too: Achilles tendinopathy, IT band syndrome, shin splints, hip flexor and hip impingement, ankle instability, and lower-back pain that only shows up a few miles in. If you also train Hyrox or hybrid events, the Hyrox page covers the station-specific overlap, and the sports chiropractic overview covers everything else.
Where shockwave fits
For the stubborn tendon and fascia injuries running produces, especially chronic Achilles tendinopathy and plantar fasciitis, shockwave therapy targets the tissue's capacity to remodel rather than just muting the pain on top of it. It is not the answer for everything, and whether it is right for you is a question we answer at the assessment, not before it.
When the pattern traces back to how the foot is loading in the first place, not just what shockwave or manual work can unwind, we build custom orthotics around your actual mechanics. Flexible, movement-oriented support, not a rigid insert that just masks the stride problem underneath it.
Built for the SF running community
San Francisco runs. ProActive is one block from the Embarcadero, the city's best-known route, and a short trip from the trailheads, tracks, and group runs the rest of the community trains on. Whether you race with a club or just chase your own watch, the door is the same.
Age is not the limit you were told it was
One of the runners we are proudest of is in his eighties and still logging miles. The lesson is not that he is exceptional, though he is. It is that a body responds to an accurate diagnosis at any age. "You are just getting older" is the explanation people are handed when nobody has actually found the mechanism. Find the mechanism, and the story usually changes.
What a first visit looks like
Every runner starts with a Body Intelligence Assessment™: a full diagnostic hour that begins with your Health Autobiography™ and a read of how you actually move and load. You leave with a clear explanation of what is driving the injury and a plan to address it, not a punch card of repeat visits. We will tell you what we find, whether or not you continue care with us.
You will leave your first visit feeling seen, heard, and hopeful. Not a sales line; we back it. If that is not your experience, we will refund your first visit in full.