I want to give you an understanding of body alignment, and what our bodies do when we run.
This is part 1 looking at what our feet, legs and hips do when you run. This I hope will help you see if there are areas where you need to strengthen your body.
For me I spent many years with Achilles and calf injuries and niggles. I have spent a large amount of time strengthening my calves and feet along with mobility to reduce ankle stiffness. Strength weather it’s rehab or maintenance is something you need to continue.
Running gait refers to your stride or the cycle a leg travels during one step of your run.
There are two parts to your gait
- Stance phase: part of your foot touches the ground
- Swing phase: your same foot is no longer touching the ground
Stance Phase
The part where your feet and legs are absorbing the most force generated (our bodies absorb up to 8 times our body weight the faster you’re running the more force you generate).
1. Initial contact
When your foot lands on the ground. There is a large amount of force generated on contact and your body needs to minimise the impact. This is done by your body creating muscle stiffness (your inbuild cushioning system) which minimises the impact and absorbs as much force as possible.
Check how you strike the ground, key thing to look for is where your foot is landing in relation to your hips. Ideally a mid foot strike is optimal.
Exercises to help strengthen the foot:
2. Stance phase
The foot rolls back to heel and either touches the ground or close to the ground which allows for force created during the initial contact to load be loaded into the Achilles & calf. These tendons and muscles would like a spring mechanism. a cycle of stretching and reflexing, storing energy and then releasing it.
Important to consider if keep heel off ground the Achilles & calf can’t fully load the spring reflex.
Exercises to strengthen the calf and stiffen your tendons
3. Propulsion
Starts to occur as your foot starts to come off the ground. Pressure in your foot moves forwards with your big toe this allows for greater propulsion and forward movement. The forward movement during propulsion is being generated from your hip extending.
Think of your hips as pistons, if you want to create more force as you’re running focus on pushing from your hips rather than from your big toe.
Exercises to strengthen the hips
Part 2 will cover upper body the arm swing, core and head position.
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