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Joined 08-16-16, id: 8173128, Profile Updated: 08-16-16

The Basics of Running
When it comes to running there are some things we can do to improve our ability to participate in this widely popular sport. First, we can take the time to evaluate how we run. You must first see yourself run before you can comment on how you run. Most of my patients sought me out not because they had abnormal movement patterns, but rather because they were already in pain. This is common human nature, and I would expect that you have a similar story.
It is, however, important to analyze how you move in a clinical manner. This allows the clinician to determine where there are problems, hypothesize about how to correct them, and then dispense a prescription for correction, either treatment, exercises, or a combination of both.
Running analysis begins with a look at your biomechanics. Biomechanics are the individual movement breakdowns and programs that run in the background allowing normal (and abnormal) movements. Within the biomechanics there are concepts such as Kinetic Chain, Movement Patterns, and Co-ordinated actions. For example, a kinetic chain (basically defined as a movement chain) can consist of everything from the foot (bones, ligaments, tendons and muscles) up the leg to the knee, then continuing up to the hip, the back, and the opposite shoulder, opposite elbow, and finally the opposite hand. All are connected and function as a group to control movement. So if you have a tight shoulder, it can affect how the opposite hip functions, and thus the opposite knee, and foot. This starts to get very complex very fast.
Movement patterns can be something as simple as rolling over as an infant. Your brain works through a “trial and error” type programming, where you lay on your back, and one day start trying to roll onto your stomach. You may try several different combinations of muscle contractions, but finally you will make it onto your stomach, and that exact pattern of muscle contraction / control is spot welded into your brain. For the rest of your life that will be your “go-to” movement pattern for rolling over. You have patterns for every movement you make. Most were developed within the first 2 years of life, and will be with you until you die. However, they are “written over” by compensation patterns that arise out of necessity. You roll your ankle, the pain is unbearable when you weight bear. You begin to limp. That limp is a compensation pattern. The compensation pattern you adopt due to pain or lack of ability to contract the proper muscles can last long after the original injury is gone. In fact often the compensation lasts until new corrective exercises are done to retrain the lost movement pattern.
Co-ordinated actions are an offshoot of movement patterns. They are more of a timing of contraction. For instance, in order to move your leg, you must contract muscles that go from your leg up to your torso (or from your torso to your leg depending on how you look at it). In order to contract the muscles, like all muscles, you must have a fixed end and a moving end. The fixed end is on the torso, the moving end on the leg. There is an order of contraction that must occur for normal movement. The “core” must engage to stabilize and solidify the torso first. This gives a fixation point for the leg muscles to then contract and move the leg. (This is an overly simplified description of a complex movement pattern, but it is just to give you an idea of the timing). As the hip flexors are firing to flex the hip, the hip extensors have to contract eccentrically (contracting while they are elongating) in order to control the hip flexion. This is also a co-ordinated action. Sometimes these can go astray, and you lose co-ordination of different regions.
All of these can lead to improper running biomechanics, and can lead to flaws in your run gait which then lead to pain or injury. In the next article we will discuss the various lower extremity injuries that can arise from faulty running gait. See you there!
learn to run without pain