Should You Change Your Running Form If You Aren't Injured? ⎹ Ep 133

In today's episode, Dr. Lisa walks you through when it is necessary to change your running form and how you should go about it. She also talks you through what she looks at in a running form analysis to keep someone's running form completely natural during changes.

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Transcript

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Welcome back to the Rehab for Runners podcast. Today we are talking about something that is very top of mind because I've been slammed busy in the best way with running form analysis and meeting with these injured runners. So I've done, I mean, at the time of this recording, I've already done like six this week, and I think I have four more to do. Um, so it's just been very top of mind, and I want to talk about this because I think a lot of runners, like you come across this question when you're feeling good of like, should I tweak my running form? Should I change my running form? Is my running form causing these injuries that I'm having maybe year after year? Or every time I increase my mileage, every time I increase speed, I get injured. Should I just address my running form? And I think your running form can play a huge role in what is happening because really at the end of the day, how your body is adapting to this load that you're putting it through stride after stride is going to determine what compensations are happening. That could be, you know, because of your training plan. It could be because of strengths and strengths and weaknesses, it could be because of certain joints being a little bit more stiff than other joints, or like how your biomechanics are moving. And I think that this is something where people will, you know, I really hate the term fix because like at the end of the day, like when someone says fix, I'm like, I'm not Bob the Builder. Like, I'm not, you know, fixing something for good. I think of when you change your running form, you're not really fixing your running form, or you shouldn't be. It should be that you are tweaking your running form. I like to look at it this way because I can't tell you how many times I've heard when someone says that they've changed their running form or have worked with someone who has helped them change their running form, then all of a sudden they feel like it's just not natural. It's like they change too many things at once, and maybe they change their stride and their cadence and their arm swing and the way that their trunk is and all these different things. And the person will tell me when all these different things have been changed, like multiple things that someone is working with them on. Every person will tell me it just doesn't feel natural to run. Or I'll look at them running and be like, okay, you look tense. Like this just doesn't look natural. It looks very forced, and they're like, that's exactly how I feel. So I think I think let me back up a little bit because I'm kind of getting ahead of myself. But I truly don't think that you need to change, completely change your running form if you are not injured. It's one of those sayings, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And I think that this is very true. I think that if you do change your running form because you are injured, like when I work with my one-on-one runners and I'm and I'm quote changing something, one, I'm tweaking it, and two, I'm giving them one thing to work on and like focus on with each run. This is not like, and when I say with each run, it's like I'm not saying on this run you're focusing on this, and this run you're focusing on this. No, it's like one cue to focus on for like two to three weeks, and then when you come back, it should feel more like second nature. It should feel more like more natural to you. It should help improve your running form. The whole point of this cue is to help improve your running form or whatever you're focusing on, is that it's gonna actually make a change in running form, which is gonna help decrease your pain. I'm not changing five different things. I can't imagine if someone told me, you know, hey Lisa, you know, you have knee pain. So I want you to work on how far you're bending your knee, and I want you to focus on taking short strides and doing this with your arm swing, and then don't forget about your trunk. And it's like, if someone said that to me, I'd be like, okay, hold up. First of all, now I'm just overwhelmed with what to focus on with each run. It doesn't feel natural. And now running's just not fun because I'm in my head about all these different things. I don't even know if I'm doing this correctly. Like, what is going on? So if you are gonna tweak your running form, I always recommend just focus on one thing at a time. I think running form is one of those things where it's like you can see someone running and be like, wow, they look amazing. They look effortless. Like, that's the best compliment when we're running, right? Like you look so effortless. It looks natural, it looks good, it's efficient. That, all of those like amazing compliments that everyone wants to hear as a runner can come in different shapes and sizes. I mean, it can come in like you doing, you know, if you've ever seen like the professional runners, they're not all running the same. We, and we need to take note of this because not everyone is going to be running the same. There's just certain things that we should look for in running or in like a running form analysis or like when you're running, with the whole goal of just making things more efficient. That should be like the bottom line is like reduce the load, make sure that we're on the ground for a long enough time to produce enough power and really just make it efficient to where each stride feels strong and each stride feels effortless. Otherwise, you know, like I said, running's not going to be all that fun if we're like forcing ourselves into these certain positions or like certain movements. So don't, please don't try to run like the next runner. Just because you see someone who's faster doesn't mean that you should be running like them. Just because, you know, you see a professional runner doesn't mean you should be running like them. I think it can be extremely helpful if you're battling an injury and like dealing with an injury, especially if it's only coming on when you are running to have a running form analysis. Because when I do so when I do a running form analysis, and this is like if you're interested, I'll put the information in the show notes and just make note that baby girl is coming mid-March. So it has to be before then. But when I'm doing a running form analysis, I am then this is like another pet peeve of mine. But when I'm doing it, I'm basically sending them how to, you know, I'm emailing them how to record yourself running. These are the different angles I want. Then you send it back to me, and then I'm breaking it down into like slow, slow, slow motion, looking at different snapshots of the different parts of the gate cycle. It is a huge pet peeve of mine, and it's no one's fault except for, you know, the people doing it. But it's a huge pet peeve of mine when someone says, you know, I had a running form analysis done, or like a PT looked at my running form analysis or running form, or someone looked at my running form, and I'll say, Did they record your did they record you running? No, they just watched me on the treadmill and they just told me I need to, you know, strengthen my glutes. And it's like, okay, if I was just watching someone running, like you know, on the street or whatever, and I wasn't slowing it down, it's going to be extremely hard for me to pick apart what is going on side to side, what's going on with the injury, what's going on with the hips, and you know, all these different snapshots that I'm looking at, or like screen grabs you could think of, that I'm looking at, that is pretty much impossible to see with the naked eye. So if you have a running form analysis done, it's not a true running form analysis unless we are really slowing things down, we're we're comparing side to side, we are looking at why or what could really be causing the injury. That's kind of like the whole point of a running form analysis. When I do one, is to figure out, okay, what is this person doing when they're running that could be contributing to an increase in load where they are having pain? And then after they do the running, after I do the running form analysis, I'll follow it up while they do different movements or they're doing different movements outside of running so that I can compare, okay, what does it look like, you know, when you're running versus without when you're not running? So basically high impact to low impact. What are these different movement patterns you're doing that could potentially lead me to finding the source of the pain? I'm not necessarily doing running form and running form analysis to make someone a faster runner. I'm not doing a running form analysis to make someone run for longer periods of time. There's so many other things that are going to um improve this versus tweaking your running form. Again, if you're not injured, I really don't, I really don't recommend it. I don't think it's worth it. I don't think it's necessary. I don't think that, you know, you need to. It's almost like the way I see it is could you improve something if you're not injured with a running form analysis? Sure. If you spent that energy focusing on other things that are gonna get you closer to your goal, you're probably gonna see a better improvement getting you closer to your goal if you worked on those things. For example, if someone's trying to run faster, they're like, I want to do a running form analysis, I'll be like, okay, like, you know, you're tight here, you might be a little bit weaker here. We can definitely work on those things, and then I give them some exercises to do, that's helpful, sure, because now you're addressing areas that are weaker. But if I just gave them like a good speed program and some plyometrics to do and power exercises to do, and they followed this, they're most likely going to see a better improvement if they followed it versus just the small tweaks in the running form. So hopefully that makes sense because, like I said, if it's not broken, please don't feel the need to fix it. I think when people think of running form two, they just think of like, oh, it's just all about cadence, and I just need to increase my cadence, which is not always true. Cadence can be a part of it, but I think if you want to know what is causing your pain and you are only having pain when you're running. So, like, if you're having plant fasciitis and you wake up with pain and you walk down the stairs with pain, like running form analysis might not be for you right then and there. But if you're rehab and you get to the point where it's like, okay, now I only have pain when I'm running like two miles or more, or three miles or more. Like, what's going on with my running form? And it really doesn't come on outside of running. A running form analysis can be extremely helpful and view it as another tool in the toolbox that's gonna help you address the source of the pain. Hopefully that makes sense. I don't, I just like think a lot of people like to tweak their running form um be or like change their running form, and it's like this it's e it's like all or nothing. It's like this huge drastic change, and it's like, you know, I've I've worked with those runners who have worked with I don't even know what you call, I guess they were just running coaches that completely change their running form. And I was like, oh my, like what are this just doesn't look natural at all. Or like someone worked with someone else and they force themselves into a new foot strike, and I'm just like, how long has this been going on for? Like I almost have to like unwind and like it's like rewind, let's rewind what you learned and get you back to a point where things feel natural and effortless. So hopefully that's helpful, but not all, you know, if the summary of this is only get a running form analysis. I only recommend getting, and I really will only do a running form analysis if someone is injured, you're really only having pain with your with your runs, or like it really increases when you're running, and you want to have your running form, you know, expect it to be tweaked. And tweaking is kind of interesting because when I give someone a cue and they're working through this one cue and I'll say work through it for two to three weeks, like it's gonna take a while for you to actually feel like this cue is more natural. Even though I'm finding like multiple things that are like quote, going wrong with a running form, a lot of the exercises I give them will actually they will it will help naturally improve their gait. It will help naturally improve their running form. The only time I give a cue is when whatever I want to be fixed or tweaked, because I hate the word fixed, is when whatever like exercises I'm giving them, it's not going to carry over into that cue. Or they just might need a little bit more repetition working into whatever cue I'm giving them. So most of the time, doing exercises will help improve your running form naturally. That's the that's the key word, naturally, to where it's like, okay, you were overstriding. I'm gonna address this, this, and this. Three weeks later, okay, great, you're no longer overstriding because we addressed the root cause of what was causing the overstride. I didn't change anything else. You didn't have to think about anything during your running for during your runs because working through these different areas and like actually addressing why you're doing certain things, that could be causing the pain, and then everything happens natural. That's when we're at like the sweet spot of actually tweaking someone's running form versus being like, and then you have to do this, and then you know, don't forget about your arm swing, your elbows are out to the side, keep them pinned to your side, and then don't forget to have your trunk upright, and it's just like turns into a mess. It's like a mess. It's really a it's a disaster to look at because I have to unwind everything that someone thought that you know they paid for and they thought it was gonna help them. And I'm like, all right, let's just like break this apart and like really have to now focus on what areas are actually like you know, forced versus what areas are weak. And at the end of the day, like you just want to run natural, you want to run effortless. I hope that was helpful. I mean, the summary of this is don't change your running form unless you are injured. I I do think too, like it could be helpful to get a if you if you know that you always get injured when you increase mileage, it could be and you're like, Lisa, I'm about to start a training block for a marathon. It could be helpful to get a running form analysis done, but I'm definitely not saying it's a must. I don't I think people are getting caught up in that when really they could be focusing more on like running specific strength exercises that will help naturally clear up whatever compensatory patterns are happening with the running form. All right, hope this was helpful. I hope you guys have a great run. It's most likely probably inside, unless you're in the south, because we still have ice here in Richmond, Virginia. All right, talk to you next week. Bye.