Earlier today I was doing a phone interview with a reporter from the Chronicle of Higher Education and she asked me a question that I have been asked a lot lately: “How would you describe good running form?” This is a question that a lot of people have opinions about (sometimes very strong opinions), but […]
Gait Variability Among Elite Runners at the 2011 Boston Marathon
May 3, 2011 By 50 Comments
Shortly after the 2011 Boston Marathon, Steve Magness posted a link on Twitter to a series of videos of the top runners from this year’s race. The videos were all shot at 300fps with the same camera that I have used to shoot my own race videos, and they were posted on YouTube by elvin314. […]
Slow Motion Gait Analysis – You Be The PT Part II
April 15, 2011 By 150 Comments
Ten days ago I posted a series of videos of my friend Lauren running on a treadmill in slow motion. As I indicated in that post, Lauren is a very strong runner, but has been dealing with intermittent, debilitating bouts of ITBS in her left leg for many years. In the comments to that post […]
The Pros and Cons of Video Analysis: Getting the Runner’s Body Back in Balance by Dr. Phil Maffetone
April 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Last week I published a post where I invited you to play the role of Physical Therapist and evaluate my friend Lauren’s running gait. The response to that post was quite amazing, and we plan to do some follow-up filming outdoors with a local specialist later this week – stay tuned! One of the points […]
Slow Motion Gait Analysis – You Be the PT
April 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment
My friend Lauren is a chronically injured runner. In her case, ITBS on her left leg has been the issue that has plagued her on and off for nearly 10 years. Though she might not admit it herself, Lauren is also a phenomenal runner – easily one of the top female runners currently in the […]
Shoes, Form, and Minimalist Running: My Interview with Jeff Kline of PRS Fit
March 7, 2011 By 5 Comments
Just a quick note here to point you to a podcast interview I did a few weeks ago with Jeff Kline of PRS Fit. We covered a lot of ground in just over 30 minutes, but as you might expect we mostly focused on minimalist running shoes and running form. If you’d like to listen, […]
Runner’s Roundtable Podcast on Running Form, Injuries, and Performance
February 24, 2011 By 7 Comments
I participated last night in a great Runner’s Roundtable Podcast on running form and how it relates to both injury and performance. The show was a sequel to a well-received previous RRT episode on Running Form that we had done last Fall. Other participants last night for Running Form Part II included Steve Magness, currently […]
Stride Rate, Stride Length, Overstriding, and Minimalist Running Form
February 22, 2011 By 43 Comments
The running science blogosphere has been popping over the past few weeks with articles touching on various aspects of the role of stride rate in running, particularly how it relates to both running speed and injury prevention. Here’s a quick summary of some of the relevant posts: 1. Back on February 5, I wrote a […]
Vertical Impact Loading Rate in Running: Post #2 from Jay Dicharry of the UVA Speed Lab
February 8, 2011 By 5 Comments
Yesterday I published a post on the topic of vertical impact loading rate in running – sounds like a complex topic, but in reality it simply represents how quickly you impact the ground when you run. The topic has gained a lot of interest among scientists lately as recent research has suggested that higher loading […]
Vertical Impact Loading Rate in Running: Linkages to Running Injury Risk
February 7, 2011 By 14 Comments
Last week I wrote a recap of the course I recently attended on the prevention and treatment of running injuries. In that post I mentioned that the topic of impact loading rate has gained a lot of interest lately in terms of it’s potential relationship to injury risk in runners. In the comments that followed […]
Gait Retraining and the Treatment of Running Injuries
February 6, 2011 By 28 Comments
Image by SashaW via Flickr In my previous post I summarized a slice of what was covered at a three-day course called “New Trends in the Prevention of Running Injuries” that I attended last weekend in West Virginia. In addition to discussing what we do and do not know about the causes of running injuries, […]
New Trends in the Prevention and Treatment of Running Injury, and a Healthy Dose of Natural Running
February 2, 2011 By 30 Comments
Every once in awhile in life you get the feeling that you are part of something big. Something that might really make a difference beyond just the small pool of people that you interact with on a regular basis. That was how I felt as I sat in a darkened conference room at the National […]
On the Limitations of Science in the Study of Running
January 21, 2011 By 19 Comments
Image via Wikipedia As runners, we often want concrete, black and white answers to questions about things like shoe design, running form, training methods, and so on. Does running in a minimal shoe make you less prone to injury than running in a traditionally cushioned, heel-lifted shoe? Does switching form to a midfoot strike make […]
Forefoot Striking and Pronation: Insight from an Ultrarunning Podiatry Student
January 13, 2011 By 28 Comments
Image from the Runner’s World Wiki Just before Christmas I received a very thoughtful and well researched email from ultrarunner Phil Shaw. In addition to being a very successful long distance runner, Phil is also pursuing a doctoral degree in podiatric medicine – quite a dangerous combination! Like me, Phil feels that the current paradigm […]
The Variable Running Footstrike: Pictures of Heel, Midfoot, and Forefoot Strikes
October 25, 2010 By 25 Comments
Over the past year I have written quite frequently on the topic of footstrike in running. Simply defined, footstrike represents the moment of initial contact of the foot with the ground, and individual footstrikes are typically categorized in the scientific literature (e.g., Hasegawa, 2007) in one of three ways : 1. rear-foot or heel strike, […]
