gait

Foot strike, thinking backwards?

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There are lots of discussions at the moment on running, foot strike,injury and so forth. These discussions have probably been around for as long as people have gathered to talk about the science of running.

Which is odd, as we have been running for far longer and seem to have got it pretty much right for the majority of that time.

We talk about heel striking, forefoot striking, a midfoot pattern and all combinations in between. Yet it is inevitable that the foot is going to strike the ground, Gravity always wins!

Why not, instead, think about how the foot pushes off again. That, to me, requires far more thought as it has to happen consciously. And a good push off has to have come from a solid foot strike.

Rather than concentrating on how the foot strikes the ground, think about the feeling of the correct area of foot pushing off, the forefoot driving away, the force passing through it and propelling the runner forwards. For this to occur, all the muscular chains have to fire correctly.

So perhaps we should turn it upside down and think about driving forwards, not striking, and see if that makes a difference.

By all means wear minimal shoes, learn to run barefoot (it is bio-mechanically highly efficient when  learned properly) and look after your body, but flip the idea upside down every now and then.

A brief thought on running mechanics and gait

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It is generally thought that there are 4 main phases to the gait cycle when running:

Inital strike, stance, take off and forward swing.

Breaking this down into 2 separate sections, we can firstly look at the strike and stance phases. As the foot makes contact with the ground and rectus femoris (one of the quadriceps group of thigh muscles) proactively fires. As the foot touches the ground, the subtalar joint inverts or everts, the midfoot abducts or adducts and the forefoot plantarflexes or dorsiflexes. All these subtle movements combine to allow a small amount of pronation to occur, maximising the foots ability to dissipate shock.From this, we can see that a tight foot that underpronates limits this ability, which may lead to achillies problems, calf strains, lateral knee pain and illiotibial band issues. Conversely, overpronation can lead to tibial strain, anterior calf injuries and medial knee pain, due to the medial rotation occurring in the tibia. 

Swing phase happens at the same time on the opposite leg. The pelvis rotates forwards, with hip flexion initiated by the iliospoas. The Hamstrings start to lengthen, limiting the extension in the lower leg, caused by the quadriceps.The lower leg decends, hitting the surface as the body accelerates, ideally creating a vertical line between head and toe on impact.

During both phases, the core provides stability for the upper body, allowing the forces to be shared and transferred correctly. As the spine can be considered by some researchers a store and transfer for the energy contained within the running motion, core integration is important and if not present, an indicator and predisposition of other issues that need to be addressed.