But in reality, you can't tell how severe an injury is and therefore how aggressive you may need to be unless you examine the injury through surgery. If you examine the patient five minutes after the injury happened, your exam is going to be quite different than it would be an hour later, so from that standpoint, grading systems are a little overrated. I am a three-sport athlete in college. While most are due to 'overtraining' or 'over doing it', some are resultant to poor biomechanics or pre-existing medical conditions. First, a training schedule must be established, with guidance.
Many people are time-locked and try to do too much in a very limited time frame.
This is the most common scenario for a stress fracture. Also, poor footwear, falling arches, or leg-length discrepancies can be an inciting factor. Lastly, bone-density abnormalities can be a precursor to stress fractures. Usually one is prone to repeat episodes and if this is the case, a bone density study should be done. In general, sticking to the 10 percent rule is often helpful.