One of the big trends I see coming is an onslaught of wearable monitoring devices that can measure aspects of your running biomechanics. For example, I received a Garmin Forerunner 620 for Christmas. The Garmin 620 is unique among Garmin watches in that it adds in the ability to measure a slew of new variables […]
The Potential Downside of Wearable Biomechanical Monitoring Devices for Running
January 14, 2014 By 35 Comments
Movement Signature of the Gravity Intolerant Runner – The Importance of Swing Phase
December 9, 2013 By 40 Comments
This is a guest post by Dr. Jeff Moreno, DPT A common observation in the world of running is the runner that overstrides. I think whether you are in the world of research, or treating runners full-time in a clinical setting, we can all agree that overstriding is suboptimal. We all understand the potential physical […]
Colin’s Running Form – Sometimes Radically Different Shoes Don’t Change Things Very Much
November 12, 2013 By 26 Comments
Last week I posted some video of my friend Sam Winebaum’s running form after a filming session at the clinic. Today I wanted to share some video of another athlete who visited last week: Colin Cook. Colin owns Peak Triathlon Coaching in Bedford, New Hampshire, and is an accomplished triathlete. As evidence of his ability, […]
You Be The Gait Analyst: Analyze Sam’s Running Form
November 7, 2013 By 23 Comments
If you’ve followed this blog over the past six months you’ll know that I resigned from a 10-year career as a college professor back in May. Aside from my desire to pursue this blog on a more full-time basis, a second big motivator for leaving academia was that I had an offer to work out […]
My Running Gait Analysis at the Spaulding National Running Center
October 28, 2013 By 22 Comments
Last Friday I traveled down to Boston to give a research presentation at the Spaulding National Running Center. I was invited by Dr. Irene Davis, one of the world’s leading experts on running gait and injuries, and it was awesome to be able to spend an afternoon at a top notch gait lab. I got […]
Kenenisa Bekele, Haile Gebrselassie, and Mo Farah in Slow Motion at the 2013 Great North Run
September 18, 2013 By 10 Comments
I’m a sucker for good slow motion videos of elite runners. A Twitter friend (@RunningTraining) captured a nice video of the top three men at mile 12 of the 2013 Great North Run. You might be familiar with these three, all of whom will go down in history as being among the greatest distance runners […]
I Think I’m a Pseudo-Heel Striker!: Study Suggests That As Many as 25-33% of Heel Strikers Exhibit a More Midfoot Loading Pattern
August 13, 2013 By 25 Comments
One of the points I’ve attempted to make repeatedly is that there is a lot of variation among the biomechanical properties of heel strikes when we compare runners. As evidence of this I like to point to a photo compilation from the 2009 Manchester City Marathon that I put together that shows just how much […]
How Can Both Barefoot Running and Hokas Reduce Knee Pain?–A Possible Explanation from a New Study
August 6, 2013 By 35 Comments
I occasionally experience pain along the outer margin of my left kneecap. It’s never severe enough to keep me from running, and it seems to come and go without much explanation. My most recent bout seemed to crop up after a run in the new Mizuno Sayonara – I can’t say for sure that the […]
Natural Running: What The Heck Does it Mean?
June 13, 2013 By 83 Comments
The phrase “natural running” gets thrown around a lot these days. For example, there’s the Natural Running Center, there are natural running stores, Newton’s Danny Abshire wrote a book called “Natural Running,” and Saucony uses Natural Running as a category for shoes on the more minimal end of its range. But, what exactly does the […]
Is Heel Striking Evil?: More Evidence that All Heel Strikes Are Not Equal
May 24, 2013 By 50 Comments
We humans like tidy little categories. With running shoes we like to take the diversity of options out there and categorize things as neutral, stability, motion control, lightweight, minimal, etc. without considering that shoes within each category are sometimes so variable as to make the category as a whole meaningless. For example, the business world […]
Foot Strike Pattern in Running Adolescents Changes With Footwear Type
March 21, 2013 By 3 Comments
I just came a across a link to an article on Science Daily that discusses a study that was just presented at the 2013 Annual Meeting of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Details are scanty, but the study authors apparently recruited 12 experienced adolescent runners (they were on track teams) and had them run on a treadmill in […]
Foot Function, Ankle Dorsiflexion, and Minimalism – Oh My!–Guest Post by Greg Strosaker
February 22, 2013 By 18 Comments
I’ve known Greg Strosaker for several years, originally through dailymile.com, and now as a fellow running blogger over at Predawn Runner. Greg and I have discussed footwear frequently in the past, and about three years ago he wrote a post here on Runblogger about his move into neutral footwear. Greg has since broken the 3:00 […]
Barefoot Running Mechanics are Different than Running in Nike Free, Nike Lunaracer 2, Standard Shoes
January 13, 2013 By 17 Comments
Several interesting studies have come out over the past few weeks that have in one way or another focused on the running foot strike. The first that I’m going to cover is by Jason Bonacci and colleagues and addresses how running mechanics differ between barefoot running and running in a “minimalist” shoe (Nike Free 3.0), […]
The Future of Minimalist Running Shoes and the Value of Variety
December 17, 2012 By 45 Comments
This morning I opened my email to find an alert that the newest edition of SGB Weekly magazine had come out and that it would be featuring a few articles by Thomas Ryan on trends in the running market as gleaned from interviews and discussions at The Running Event. The Running Event is the major […]
Mo Farah and Galen Rupp: Relaxed Running Form on the Treadmill
December 5, 2012 By 15 Comments
I was recently interviewed by Runner’s World for an article about form and injuries, and in an email exchange with an editor at the magazine I received a link to the following video. The video is by Hydroworx, and shows some footage of Mo Farah and Galen Rupp on treadmills at the Nike complex. Nice […]
