Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Gait Analysis Part II: Deconstructing Stride Mechanics in Pictures

Yesterday I received my Gait Analysis report showing stills from a solid 30 minute-plus session gathering footage of pretty much my every move:)

I've taken some of the stills and posted here. Various phases you'll see are left and right midstance, toe off, and posterior views looking at posture from the shoulder down to the ankle. For shoe geeks like me, you'll see comparisons of where I land wearing different shoe models (all neutral). Like I mentioned previously, this was a neat experience from a learning standpoint. I'm a week in doing prescribed exercises and we'll see what the results of that brings as I begin racing. Notice the green line showing showing postural alignment. Disclaimer: I am three weeks off from taking a couple weeks off to let my R foot heal, so my current run fitness level is lacking, possibly skewing my true stride-this is still a useful sample getting a fairly accurate picture, I believe. The middle pics are PSA's for glute strengthening to prevent hip tilt. Enjoy!

Forgive the lack of organization for the pics! Captions of what is being looked at are below:

Right side heel strike/ wearing Saucony Virrata (Zero Drop) 

Right Side Midstance-Saucony Virrata

Nice view of my R heel strike sporting Saucony Kinvara 4's. (4mm Drop). Here I noticed some forefoot guarding going on coming off tendon injury.  

Wearing the highest drop shoe here: Nike Air Pegasus 30 (12mm) Left side Toe-off. I think they want a full extension ideally...so close!

Right Side Mid stance Nikes. Looks like foot goes back underneath for this phase, luckily!
One of the cooler frames: Midstance wearing Saucony Ride 7 (8mm drop) on the left side (holy hip drop!), and the Air Pegs on the right. I also like to spread my arms when I run, apparently! 


My "good side": Wearing Saucony Ride 7's. Strike more midfoot all around as this side has never been injured. 

"Daily driver" Ride 7 going head to head with faster/short distance shoe, Virrata: Right midstance. Either way, I gotta get those glutes stronger to correct the hip drop!

Rockin the Natural running shoes on the left like a boss:) 
Right toe-off-Virrata. My arms look weird.
 So there you have probably more than you want to know about how I run, what I look like when I run (in a totally unnatural setting, at least!) And how shoes may or may not change our gait. I was surprised at the minimal differences between them all.

2 comments:

misszippy said...

I, for one, am jealous of your great hip extension!

Raina R. said...

Woot woot!! Now I want the film from my last visit to the PT!