The importance of a good running gait

image from asics.com

I wanted to write a blog post on the importance of a good running gait after completing a couple of weeks of running complimentary gait analyses for members in the gym. A gait analysis provides runners with essential information about their running style. As well as helping you find the right running shoe through assessing the motion of the foot, the analysis also looks at the leg and body movement and efficiency to see if it can help identify certain movements that may be triggering injuries.

The analyses revealed interesting results to the members, identifying which running trainers are correct for their gait. Through the video technology it also allowed them to watch their running style — something we unfortunately can’t always monitor ourselves!

Your ‘gait’ when you run is essentially the form of your posture, movement of limbs and the tracking of each joint for each stride. Firstly, the most important thing to remember is that you need to nurture your gait through sensible distances, gradual development of strength and paying REALLY close attention to your body.

Only ever increase any variable (distance, speed, hill work etc) by 10% a week and ONLY one of these at a time. This is particularly important when returning to running after an injury.

View your first run as you would a set of repetitions of an exercise. Just as when your form deteriorates you stop…not when muscular failure occurs.

In the same way, you would slow down to a speed on a run that you are moving well with a good gait. Pushing to go faster or further too soonwill slow down your development of a body conditioned to running

OK, so what is a good gait?

• keep tall with a ‘proud’ posture

• tight torso but not too tense

• chest up and shoulders back and relaxed (not over tense)

• don’t clench the fists! This will lead to tight shoulders and you’ll also be expending far too much energy than is necessary.

• arms bent at the elbows and allow a natural swing through the arms, forwards and backwards. Arm drive is really important for force displacement through the torso. Your arms are particularly a powerful weapon when doing hill running!

• feet should land on the floor just forward from a centre point below
your body

• avoid lengthening stride to ‘pull’ yourself along

• imagine the floor is ‘hot’ and you have to minimise your foot time on the floor, this has the effect of minimal ground time and a good spring back up

•ideal landing point for your feet is mid foot or forefoot before dropping to heel as you roll forward. Where you land on your feet will develop with time. You can be either a mid-foot, or ball of foot first runner. Our feet absorb shock this way, not relying on squashy heeled trainers as such, nature has given us all the infrastructure we need for this!

• heel strike is a ‘stopping mechanism’ so try to avoid. However, sometimes when starting out this will feel the most natural so go with it, although try to land as lightly as possible. Work on developing up to mid/forefoot landing as above.

• centre of gravity just in front of your body as you move..imagine you are ‘chasing’ this along with your feet as they land

• your legs should glide in small circles and feet land straight with up and down ‘pistoning’ of the knees

• relaxed head, jaw and neck

Overall, this advice is a starting point and please always get good advice from a running specialist who can actually watch you run and advise the right kind of trainers (see my previous post on tips for buying running trainers).

Using your breathing is a very good way to self limit your speed to fit within your abilities:

• essentially breathing in through your nose across 3 to 4 strides and out through your mouth for 3 to 4 strides will self limit your intensity

• optimal would be in and out through the nose as well but most find this constrictive.

• the stride amount per breath will decrease as you speed up or intensity increases (i.e. up a hill) to the point that you will be ‘mouth breathing’. This is the point where you are switching to anaerobic energy systems (meaning without oxygen). Fine for sprint work which is a short amount of time, however if hoping for a long run you will end up short! Long distance needs aerobic energy systems where you use a steady supply of oxygen at a comfortable cruising pace and this means slowing down

• Try some Hatha or Dynamic Yoga to help improve your breathing technique.

Lastly, if it hurts to run then there us a reason for this so always stop and seek advice…even for the smallest niggles! It is not worth risking injury, so if in doubt please see a physiotherapist.

Happy running!