Physics...Physiology...Physical Therapy

Fixing your overstride: should you focus on your feet?

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We can all agree that overstriding is a bad thing when it comes to running. Simply put, overstriding is when your foot lands too far in front of your hip at the moment of impact. So, the questions become, how do I know if I’ve overstriding? and how do I fix it if I am overstriding? It is very easy to want to focus on your feet, and perform drills to develop proper foot placement. These are often helpful, but what if the dysfunction is coming from somewhere else?

This brings us to Aaron’s story. He has run several marathons and is gearing up for another this fall. He is also eyeing a late summer triathlon. As we met up for our session, he remarked that he has had intermittent right medial knee pain with running. As our session started, it looked like hip strength/flexibility/efficiency was going to be the focus. A moderate overstride was present, but it didn’t appear to be the most critical element of his form. But at the end, with focusing on his hip function, the overstride diminished. Again, this wasn’t the initial goal, but the result was too cool not to bring attention.

Here is video of him initially.

One of the clues to look for if you suspect overstriding, is if you can see the bottoms of his feet while he is running toward you, then he is likely guilty. What else is present on the right side is a hard landing through his hip and slight toe-out. Essentially, if he’s not using his hip to absorb the landing adequately, combined with his foot turning out, extra stress is placed on the inside of his knee.

Another note on overstriding, when you do it, it increases the impact through your legs, hips, and core and doesn’t allow you to use muscles efficiently. On the flip side, if you can teach your hips to work more efficiently, this can cut down on your overstride, as we’ll see as Aaron’s story unfolds.

Here’s another assessment tool for hip stability, notice the position of his knee as he gets deeper into the squat. His right knee goes inward further than the left, which is a sign of poor stability in the right hip.

What to do about it? First an exercise to build strength/stability in the hip, again notice it’s more of a struggle on the right side.

Also, a simple stretch for the gluts.

Next, we went caveman style to build further hip strength and quickness of load/response. Holding weight overhead forces his hips to work harder to load and push-off.

We also transferred that into a form drill. Notice the overstriding is already going away!

After all this, here is footage of him running.

Again, the overstriding is greatly diminished and he looks much more efficient through his hips and upper body. As mentioned above, if you can see the bottoms of his feet as he’s running toward you, that’s not a good thing, and he looks much better with this after doing the exercises. Also, notice his toe out is decreased.

So, the take home message here is that the area with the greatest flaw in form may not be the place to start correcting it.

With constant attention to these areas, it will make a huge difference for decreasing the knee pain and improving his efficiency as a runner. Great job Aaron!

Hip strength for runners

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It’s no secret that runners need strong hips in order to run happily and pain-free. But how does one discern if they have adequate strength and if not, how to strengthen in a way that translates to better running? This is the tricky part. A simple youtube search for ‘hip strength for runners’ turns up all kinds of results with lots of great ideas. The important thing to consider is finding the ones that make a difference for you. It’s critical to have some way to determine if the exercise you’ve done has made the improvement you desire.

This brings us to Jonathan’s story. He recently completed a standout career at the NCAA D1 level. Toward the end of this last season he had trouble with his form breaking down and especially his right leg seizing up at the end of races. Here is video of him initially.

And another running at a faster/tempo pace.

What stands out is the asymmetry of his arms (left hand higher than right), as well as the excessive rotational movement of his hips during the respective landing/loading phases. These are somewhat subtle, but for a runner of Jonathan’s caliber, they can make a huge difference.

If you’ve followed the blog, you’ve likely seen stories where the arms are telling a story for what’s going on in the hips. In Jonathan’s case, seeing his arms behave like that indicates that his hips are not making the transition from loading to push-off as quickly or efficiently as they should, especially on the right side. This can be a huge cause of knee, calf, IT band, and hamstring dysfunction, any of which can derail a runner.

So, what to do about it. He has been diligently stretching his hips and calves for several weeks now. So the focus of today’s session was on firing up his hips so they will work more efficiently. First, a simple single leg squat with the arms pre-positioned to make the right gluts work harder.

Secondly, a modified bounding drill with the same arm movements, again to increase the leverage of the upper body and force the gluts to work harder.

Another version is simply to jump side to side with the arms doing the same thing. This will help him do the ‘Thriller’ next chance he gets!

We also had him run with his arms in the loaded position with small free weights to the right only, in order to balance out and specifically target the right side.

And lastly, simply running with the hands straight overhead holding the free weights. This takes the arms out of the picture as stabilizers in the frontal plane (side to side) movements, and instead makes them a liability, especially with the extra weight creating extra leverage. This forces the gluts to respond more quickly, which translates to more efficient running.

After all this, here’s the new and improved Jonathan!

And again at a faster/tempo pace.

Notice that his arm swing is more symmetrical and his elbows are not sticking out to the side as much. Also, his hip movement is more efficient, as they are not rotating out to the side as dramatically. Again, these are signs that his hips are working better, which should be the goal of any hip strengthening exercises that you do.

With constant practice of these and similar exercises, his running career will continue in great form. Excellent job Jonathan!

Knee pain due to hip/hamstring misbehavior

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How do unhappy hamstring muscles affect running gait? We’ve all heard about hamstring flexibility, but what about hamstring strength? And more specifically, are they firing at their proper times in order to stabilize the knee and pelvis during running? Check out a previous post to get a more thorough dissertation on hamstring function.

On a practical note, here is Brad, a former collegiate sprinter and current superstar triathlete. He has had nagging pain in his left hamstring and posterior knee. Here is video initially.

And here’s another at a faster speed.

It’s subtle, but if you compare his left knee to his right upon landing, a slight lag is present. More specifically, upon landing his right knee stays slightly bent, but his left knee has a little sloppy movement toward hyperextension. When this is present, the posterior knee joint is under stress with every step taken. Could this be a cause of your posterior knee pain?

He also shows a slight asymmetry with his arm swing, with rotation more to the left than the right. An asymmetry like this is usually tattling on the legs. For Brad, it’s a compensatory pattern to make up for his gluts not working properly.

To dig a little deeper, here’s a simple test for hamstring function. See if you can discern a difference between the right and left sides.

Of course, the best part of the this video is his son showing off, but as you can see, his left knee is slightly more wobbly than the right. This indicates a lack of stability, especially as the hamstrings and gluts come under further load.

Here is where the breakdown occurs. It is a common pattern for the gluts and hamstrings to be partners in crime. This is often a combination of lack of flexibility, as well as lack of strength under load.

So here is what we did for Brad. A simple ground reach to load the gluts and hamstrings, exploding up to a running pose.

Next a simple stretch for the gluts. Another variation can be done using a table or similar height object.

Next, power skips to develop quickness and power during the load-to-push-off transition.

And lastly, running with his arms out to the right side. This accomplishes two things. First, working on symmetry of upper body movement, and second, taking the gluts out of the equation and forcing the hamstrings to fire up more quickly.

After all this, here’s the new and improved Brad!

His upper body is symmetrical, which indicates better muscle balance through the legs. More importantly, his left knee looks more stable during the transition from loading to pushing off (other than the slight wobble on the 2nd step due to the uneven ground!). Great job Brad!

Again, what he presents with is very common and can be improved with attention to the gluts and hamstrings. If your running buddy has similar patterns or nagging issues, please pass this along!

Running form for a newbie

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There are common patterns that new runners demonstrate when acclimating to distance running. Quite often overstriding, poor knee drive, and poor upper body posture are seen. So here’s a good episode that demonstrates these patterns and simple things that most new runners can do. This week’s superstar is Emily. She has been active in a number of ways, but only recently taken up distance running. Here is video initially.

From behind and in front, you can see extra rotation of her shoulders and arm swing that slightly crosses the midline. From in front you can also see the bottoms of her shoes which is a sign of overstriding. From the side she demonstrates a forward trunk lean (bending at the waist instead of at the ankles), as well as limited hip extension.

So what to do about all this. First a simple hip flexor stretch, every runner should be doing some variation of this!

Next a simple version of A-skips. Essentially her instructions were to skip focusing on driving her knee upwards and landing with her feet underneath her body. Done correctly, this can address her upper body posture, foot strike and improving knee drive.

Lastly, running with small weights held in each hand out to the side. What this does is decrease the amount her arms/shoulders are able to rotate and forces her core to become stronger and more stable with the rotational forces through her hips and lower abs.

After all this, here is the new and improved Emily!

From behind her arm swing is more forward/backward instead of rotating and crossing the midline which is a sign of improved efficiency. Her overstride is also decreased. From the side she has better knee drive and decreased forward trunk lean.

Again, being a new distance runner it will take constant attention to these drills to continue to develop more efficient form, but she’s off to a great start. Great job Emily!

Should you run differently in a team sport?

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Often the question is asked, should I run differently if I’m on the soccer field or basketball court, as opposed to distance running? The answer is a nice straightforward yes, and no. The physics of how the body works remain the same, but with a team sport the context changes very rapidly. In order to successfully play a team sport, a lot of stability is needed with side-to-side movements, so a quick cut can be made or so you don’t get tackled as easily. But it’s also helpful to be able to turn the jets on when a straight run is warranted, think a wide receiver getting loose in the open field, or a soccer player with a breakaway.

This brings us to this week’s star performer. Cooper is a former high school state champion mid-distance runner who has turned to ultimate frisbee in recent years. Let’s see what he looks like initially.

As you can see, his elbows are sticking out to the side and his arm swing is a little high in general. This is very common with team sport athletes, which again comes from the context of making lateral movements while running. Again, this can be a positive thing in the midst of a sport, but is a very inefficient way to run in a straight line. What this indicates is that his hips are not as stable as they should be while he is running, so carrying his arms high and elbows out helps to make up for that. Picture someone walking a tightrope carrying a long pole, the extra width makes balancing easier, and Cooper has figured out a way to make his upper body act as a pole.

He is also taking rather long strides and overstriding, and these are different things. Overstriding refers to where the foot hits the ground relative to where the body is at that moment, so anytime the foot strikes way out in front of the body is an overstride. One of the things to look for to discern if this is going on, is to look for the bottoms of his shoes when he is running directly toward the camera.

As another assessment, we had him run with his hands directly overhead. What this does is take away his cheating upper body and raises his center of gravity, essentially making it more difficult to balance. It’s interesting to see how his hips and lower core respond to this.

It certainly looks more awkward, but his overstride goes away, so this is helpful to give us some direction for making him more efficient. As a form drill and core training move, we simply had him hold light dumbbells overhead, further raising the center of gravity and forcing his hips to work harder.

He also did A-drills to develop proper foot strike closer to his body to avoid the overstride and keep his stride lengths more moderate. The key with this drill is to snap the foot straight up and strike it straight back down.

So after all this, here’s the new and improved Cooper.

His foot strike looks significantly better as his overstride is diminished. His upper body also looks more efficient as his arms are lower and elbows closer in. This indicates that he is engaging his hips more effectively. He certainly needs to perform these drills regularly and will see significant gains with his efficiency. Great job Cooper!