{"id":417,"date":"2016-03-11T16:37:37","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T16:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/?p=417"},"modified":"2022-10-30T09:40:19","modified_gmt":"2022-10-30T09:40:19","slug":"running-gait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/","title":{"rendered":"Running Gait and It\u2019s Relation to Injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I mention gait analysis, a lot of runners will think of the time they had their trainers chosen by a running store. A camera is placed to record a runner\u2019s movement pattern from the ankles and that is what will be the basis for finding the right trainer. Studies actually show that if you choose to buy a new trainer based on knee pain, the angle of your ankle movement has no correlation with that injury. This means the over-pronation you may have, or excessive heel striking<\/a>, would not have a direct impact on that knee pain you suffer with. The stride pattern or amount of force you apply however is much more relevant (something to think about).<\/p>\n

What few runners will think about is a biomechanical gait analysis; more than one camera angle is recorded for a longer period of time, and the shot is placed so we can see the whole body. During a biomechanical analysis you\u2019re being assessed for any potential injury or weaknesses in your running style.<\/p>\n

Your Running Style<\/h2>\n

So everybody runs a different way, for example some strike forefoot, some heel, some are dead in the centre and slap the ground all at once with the whole foot. The reasons straight from this point are because of your speed and the way you carry yourself. Sprinting will take you onto your toes more as the acceleration and foot strike won\u2019t give you enough time to hit the ground with anything more than that. You also need the push to gain speed using all muscles possible, in this case using the calves too. Longer distances will lead you to the firmer strike as, comparing with sprinting, you are running a lot slower and your feet will be in more contact with the ground.<\/p>\n

Your posture<\/a> in running can change not only your foot strike but also how high you drive those knees up, how much of a pronation you have in your ankles, even the amount of discomfort you may feel in your lower back and shoulders.<\/p>\n

Common Flaws<\/h2>\n

Commonly found in a lot of runners are knock knees, which happens as you make contact with the ground. As you bend your right knee on impact, your hip is internally rotated which leads your knee to bend inwards. This means as your left leg comes across for the next stride it may rub or \u2018knock\u2019 against your other knee. This can be a reason for your front knee pain, or even your IT band issues. As a runner, you\u2019ll often hear about that awful IT band. Be sure to look after it especially on the build up to a marathon \u2013 once they flare up there is no quick fix and a period of rest from running is always advised. Not great for your training plan!<\/p>\n

Needless to say, over pronating can cause issues and is commonly a sign there are problems with stride. As mentioned in previous blogs however I need to emphasise; almost every runner pronates, it\u2019s completely natural. It only becomes a problem if you are constantly injured in particular areas such as your Achilles tendon or the arch of your foot leading to plantar fasciitis<\/a>. Overpronation can be due to a number of root causes such as pregnancy or obesity, sometimes just an imbalanced muscle structure in the lower legs. The point to remember is there are solutions and fixes but as with any injury, get it addressed before it becomes any worse.<\/p>\n

Something that comes up a lot with the hips is a drop on the opposing striking foot, showing weakness in the hips (see fig.2.). As your left foot strikes, the left hip stabilisers are required to hold your posture in a straight position. Sometimes this can be affected by strength in the hips, or injury limiting their effectiveness. This problem can lead to IT band issues and problems in the front of the knee. As with all of the abnormalities in running style, the best thing you can do is to be assessed professionally rather than try to note yourself; as soon as you become aware of your running posture it will change and therefore will be difficult to pin point exactly what may be going wrong.<\/p>\n

Finally one of the main causes of shin splints (MTSS) and stress fractures in the lower leg is over-striding. In doing this, you will no doubt be severely hitting the ground with your heel. MTSS \u00a0can be caused by significant and repetitive impact through the leg, so by over-striding not only are you repeatedly striking harder than you would normally (leading to possible MTSS), but you\u2019re also potentially causing problems for your hamstrings<\/a>, hip flexors and lower back. Stress fractures are of course what they say they are \u2013 the impact of the ground causes heavy stress on the bones and can lead to fractures within them. There are 28 bones in your foot, all of which susceptible along with your tibia and fibula. A simple solution to address this is to gauge your stride pattern. If you hit the ground any less than 70 strides per minute then you may want to increase that without running any faster. This will limit the impact you make.<\/p>\n

There are of course many other abnormalities that can lead to sports injury, these are just to name a few. If you are training for a marathon, or any distance event for that matter, I would strongly recommend having your gait analysed right at the start of training to help prevent any issues during the time. If you\u2019re already in training and have problems occurring on a regular basis get them addressed, they\u2019ll only get worse! Correcting your running gait can erase up to 50% of problems in runners, it\u2019s well worth doing!<\/p>\n

Treat the cause, not the problem!<\/p>\n

Contact The Body Matters for further information on sports injury therapy in southend<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I mention gait analysis, a lot of runners will think of the time they had their trainers chosen by a running store. <\/p>\n

Read more <\/em><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[17,23,26,34],"class_list":["post-417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-injury","tag-foot-pain","tag-running","tag-sports-injury-2","tag-treatments"],"yoast_head":"\nRunning Gait and It\u2019s Relation to Injuries - The Body Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When I mention gait analysis, a lot of runners will think of the time they had their trainers chosen by a running store.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Running Gait and It\u2019s Relation to Injuries - The Body Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I mention gait analysis, a lot of runners will think of the time they had their trainers chosen by a running store.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Body Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-11T16:37:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-10-30T09:40:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/running1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"521\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Louise\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Louise\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/running-gait\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/running-gait\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Louise\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/610111b177e0009a3fe8a8ff858c338b\"},\"headline\":\"Running Gait and It\u2019s Relation to Injuries\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-11T16:37:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-30T09:40:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/running-gait\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1000,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/running-gait\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/running1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"foot pain\",\"running\",\"sports injury\",\"treatments\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Sports Injury\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/running-gait\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/running-gait\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/running-gait\\\/\",\"name\":\"Running Gait and It\u2019s Relation to Injuries - The Body Matters\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/running-gait\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/running-gait\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/running1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-11T16:37:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-30T09:40:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/610111b177e0009a3fe8a8ff858c338b\"},\"description\":\"When I mention gait analysis, a lot of runners will think of the time they had their trainers chosen by a running store.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/running-gait\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/running-gait\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/running-gait\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/running1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/running1.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":521},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/running-gait\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Running Gait and It\u2019s Relation to Injuries\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Body Matters\",\"description\":\"Sports Injury Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/610111b177e0009a3fe8a8ff858c338b\",\"name\":\"Louise\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a281fb22635aac53646a2d727d863962af01b424a4b534e6e3571d30dfa0f629?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a281fb22635aac53646a2d727d863962af01b424a4b534e6e3571d30dfa0f629?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a281fb22635aac53646a2d727d863962af01b424a4b534e6e3571d30dfa0f629?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Louise\"},\"description\":\"Louise brought a long-held dream to life when she opened The Body Matters in 2008. That dream was to create a friendly and informal centre of trained, screened and specialised therapists \u2013 providing the perfect balance of mind, body and soul.\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Running Gait and It\u2019s Relation to Injuries - The Body Matters","description":"When I mention gait analysis, a lot of runners will think of the time they had their trainers chosen by a running store.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Running Gait and It\u2019s Relation to Injuries - The Body Matters","og_description":"When I mention gait analysis, a lot of runners will think of the time they had their trainers chosen by a running store.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/","og_site_name":"The Body Matters","article_published_time":"2016-03-11T16:37:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-10-30T09:40:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":521,"url":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/running1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Louise","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Louise","Estimated reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/"},"author":{"name":"Louise","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/610111b177e0009a3fe8a8ff858c338b"},"headline":"Running Gait and It\u2019s Relation to Injuries","datePublished":"2016-03-11T16:37:37+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-30T09:40:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/"},"wordCount":1000,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/running1.jpg","keywords":["foot pain","running","sports injury","treatments"],"articleSection":["Sports Injury"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/","url":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/","name":"Running Gait and It\u2019s Relation to Injuries - The Body Matters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/running1.jpg","datePublished":"2016-03-11T16:37:37+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-30T09:40:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/610111b177e0009a3fe8a8ff858c338b"},"description":"When I mention gait analysis, a lot of runners will think of the time they had their trainers chosen by a running store.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/running1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/running1.jpg","width":800,"height":521},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/running-gait\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Running Gait and It\u2019s Relation to Injuries"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/","name":"The Body Matters","description":"Sports Injury Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/610111b177e0009a3fe8a8ff858c338b","name":"Louise","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a281fb22635aac53646a2d727d863962af01b424a4b534e6e3571d30dfa0f629?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a281fb22635aac53646a2d727d863962af01b424a4b534e6e3571d30dfa0f629?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a281fb22635aac53646a2d727d863962af01b424a4b534e6e3571d30dfa0f629?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Louise"},"description":"Louise brought a long-held dream to life when she opened The Body Matters in 2008. That dream was to create a friendly and informal centre of trained, screened and specialised therapists \u2013 providing the perfect balance of mind, body and soul."}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2889,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions\/2889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebodymatters.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}