Posted in Blog, Featured, Performance Enhancement, Running.
5 Factors a Gait Analysis Can Tell You
by Connor Hesselbirg, PT, DPT, FAFS
Running form is always a fun topic discussed amongst teammates and colleagues. These conversations can lead to a lot of questions about if your running form is “good” or if there is room for improvement. And as PTs, we thrive on identifying body mechanics and how certain parts of your running can be leading to injury, or holding you back from bringing down your PRs. Here are some factors a gait analysis can find that can help make you a faster and healthier runner:
1) Foot strike: Heel, midfoot, or toes?
There’s a lot of debate about what foot strike better produces faster results. They see a lot of professional runners doing it, so that means they should too. But there is no “faster” or “correct” way to land on your foot. You should be landing based on what feels natural to YOU, and then a PT can help identify how to make the most of your foot strike pattern. This can be done by strengthening the muscles that you typically favor with your own foot strike. This can also help figure out why a chronic injury continues to get worse as mileage or intensity increases with training.
2) Pronation vs supination
Having too much pronation (foot falling too far on the inside) or supination (foot falling too far to the outside) can also implicate certain joints and muscles and cause pain and injuries if you do not have the proper shoe wear. PTs can also provide suggestions on shoe wear, as well as exercises and drills to help avoid this excessive motion you see in many runners’s feet and ankles. Remember, some pronation is not a bad thing. We’re just looking at excessive motion one way or the other.
3) Cadence
Cadence is the amount of steps you take per minute, and can have a direct impact on how you load your muscles and joints. Calculating your cadence can be as simple as tracking it on your running watch, but finding ways to help improve your cadence, if needed, can be difficult to accomplish on your own. PTs have great tricks to help improve your cadence to increase running economy and making you a more efficient and healthier runner in the process.
4) Muscle Imbalances
Our MotionMetrix camera helps identify how much loading you put in your major running joints like your hips and knees, which can help identify why injuries occur more on one side of your body more than others. Being able to correct these imbalances depends on the patient, but it can mainly be addressed by strengthening the proper muscle groups to increase symmetry and prevent overuse on your injured side.
5) Adjusting posture
How you hold yourself can have a significant impact on how you run. An example of this is using a forward trunk lean. When you run too “straight” or vertical, you can lose most of your momentum going forward and have “energy leaks.” Leaning forward through your trunk creates more momentum going in the direction you want to go, making yourself more efficient. The “how” of creating this forward trunk lean could depend on the patient, which is why it’s important to consult a PT on addressing it, or if it’s even worth addressing.
Ready to go the extra mile for your running goals?
Even if you are pain free during and after running, there are many ways you can continue to improve your running form and efficiency by asking a PT. Maybe you are having limited range of motion in your hips preventing you from getting more power through that joint. Or if you focus more on core strengthening so you can maintain your form at faster paces. Runners are always finding ways to get faster and stronger, and consulting a PT with a gait analysis can help you reach those goals with some extra exercises or drills.
