Running gait and injury

A retrospective study comparing the running styles of 72 injured runners and 36 healthy ones found a number of kinematic factors in common running injuries that we can identify through assessment and address through gait retraining. Two commonly seen running styles that may be associated with injury are:

1. Over-striding (usually seen with knee extension and ankle dorsiflexion at initial contact)
2. Medial collapse – the combination of hip adduction and pelvic drop

Both of these styles have also been associated with poorer running economy. There are corrections that can be made, for example by using gait cues such as increasing cadence or cueing to decrease hip adduction (don’t let knees touch or running either side of a train track). This should help to decrease load on sensitive tissues and improve economy. To book in for a running analysis, please speak to reception.

References:

Is there a pathological running gait associated with common soft tissue running injuries? Bramah et al. (2018) The american Journal of Sports Medicine. 

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