Quad vs. Glute Dominant Runners ⎹ Ep 136

In todays episode, Dr Lisa talks about what it means to be a quad or glute dominant runner, why this is common even if you have strong glutes, and what you can do to fix it. 

Links and Resources:

• Runners Complete Program: 12 week strength and mobility program that helps runners prevent injuries and run stronger. Receive 3 full body strength workouts that take 45 minutes and 3 post run mobility routines each week. Has helped over 2,000 runners take the guesswork out of what they should be doing outside of running
• Hip Program: At home rehab program for hip injuries including hip impingement, gluteal tendinopathy, low back soreness/pain, SIJ pain, psoas/hip flexor pain, piriformis syndrome and ITB syndrome
• Runners Knee Program: At home rehab program for pain around the kneecap, under the knee cap or around the joint line
• Foot and Ankle Program: At home rehab program for injuries including plantar fasciitis, shin splints, achilles tendinopathy, ankle sprains, posterior tibialis pain and big toe pain
• Toe Spacers (use discount code DRLISA10)
• Mobo Board (use discount code DRLISAMITRO10)

Transcript

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Welcome back to the Rehup Runners podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Lisa, and I want to talk about something I hear all the time, and that is that I'm a very quad dominant runner. Or on the flip side, someone might say, I struggle to feel my glutes when I run. So I really want to break this down into what is actually a quad dominant runner, what is a glute dominant runner, what should we even be? I mean, obviously we want strong glutes when we're running, but I want to really break this down into something that feels practical for you to actually be able to work on if you feel like you are a quad dominant runner, or if you feel like you really struggle to feel your glutes when you're running. Now, at the time of this recording, I am 38 weeks pregnant. Um, yeah, we're almost there, which means this podcast might be taking, well, it will be taking a little bit of a break as baby girl gets here, whenever that might be. I like to think it's soon, but she seems very comfortable. So I don't, who even knows. But I will say that every day I'm like, this is this is getting harder, and I just can't wait to like feel a little bit more like myself again, especially like with the weather being so nice. I don't know if it's like this where you are, but it's 7 70 degrees, and I'm used to being active, so like I have that mental toll on me now that I'm kind of having to not be as active as I once was. I know it's all temporary, but I keep going back to basically like feeling like I'm injured. Now, the only reason I think I like keep my head there and like keep thinking of myself as like this injured mindset is because I think it just helps me think of this as a temporary thing. Now, obviously, I'm very excited to meet my daughter, but on the flip side, that doesn't mean I'm enjoying the journey. I think you can kind of have like a mix of both. It's kind of like you enjoy race day, but that doesn't mean you enjoy all the training. You know, like there's there's pros and cons to everything. Um, but I have still been working with runners virtually, and I'm just this is like I've been doing a ton of running form analysis or analysis, whatever the multiple version of analysis is. And this is something I've been like literally hearing all the time is like, you know, when someone comes to me injured and I'm looking at the running form and I am talking to them and they're like, I feel like I'm very quad dominant. And sometimes I'll use that type of verbiage with them because that's what they know. But let's break down like what I actually think you should be thinking of this as. And then two, how can we fix this? Because at the end of the day, you want a strong stride, you want to have that good balance between anterior and posterior muscles, especially those powerhouse muscles. Um, so this is gonna be a good one. I think a lot of the time when a runner is, you know, running mostly on flat ground, I'll say, and they might say that they don't feel their glutes when they're running, and that leads them to think that they are a very quad dominant runner. Now, I just want to make sure we all understand we need strong quads to run. There is a mentor that I love listening to and learning from, and he mentioned that um, his name is David Gray. He mentioned that basically the quads take on five times your body weight and force with each stride or something around that. So obviously, we really need strong quads to run. I think a lot of people are like afraid to strengthen their quads, or they feel like maybe not afraid, but they just think that they strengthen their quads a little bit too much because maybe in the gym they're doing a lot of lunges, they're doing a lot of squats, maybe they're doing like one form of a glued exercise that's more like like straight posterior chain, like a deadlift. But it's mostly those like squats and lunges and those types of exercises. So they might automatically think that they're a more quad dominant runner. But like I said, like your knees need to be really strong in order to run efficiently. And that means we need really strong quads, and your feet and ankle actually need really strong quads in order to help absorb the shock. And your hips need, I mean, one of the quad muscles crosses your knee and your hip. So I don't want you thinking like going into this and like maybe even having that mindset of, well, I just really need to hyper focus on my glutes. Sure, but don't forget about all the other powerhouse muscles. We have to have a really nice balance between, I say like anterior and posterior chain. So think about like the powerhouse muscles on the anterior chain is your hip flexor and your quads, and then on the posterior chain, you have your glutes and your hamstrings and your calves. And then also, so you need that nice balance, but then you also need the nice balance between medial and lateral strength and stability. Think about your hips, the abductors, the adductors, the external rotators, the internal rotators. There, that needs to be balanced as well. When we are off balance, or there's more dominance into one of those, whether it's more anterior compared to posterior, or more medial compared to lateral, that's where we can start to see a lot of compensations happening. So, knowing this, knowing we need strong quads to run, we obviously need strong glutes and hamstrings to run. I like to think of it, and I kind of learned it more as knee versus hip dominance. And this is something that Jay uh DeKary, who is the inventor, he's a PT, he's the inventor of the MOBO board. I don't know if you've ever heard of it, but it's an amazing device. If you really struggle to feel your big toe, I will link it below because it is it's good. It is a it is one of the best wobble boards like out there to improve like foot, ankle stability, as well as glute stability too in single leg. Anyways, he he mentions and he likes to talk more about like how it's knee versus hip dominance versus quad versus glute dominance. And I really like this too because it's like our quad the quad and the glute, it's not an apples to apples comparison. And I think sometimes we think that. Think about how long your quads are in relationship to your glutes. Think about how much beefier your glutes are in relationship to your quads. Think about like they just have different actions too. It's just not the same as saying, like, well, you know, this needs 50% and this needs 50%. It's like, no, they they both have different roles when they're running, and it's it's not fair to say like, you know, they both take on different types of forces too. So I don't think it's fair to say like the the quads have to be equally as strong as the glutes, and vice versa. I think if anything, you know, the glutes tend to be a little bit stronger because they have more, they have more force going through them. And I just think, you know, let's think of it more as like knee versus quad or sorry, knee versus hip dominance, instead of breaking down the muscles. So if we think about it like this, a runner who's very knee dominant, you know, if we if we put the term on them knee dominant, first of all, this is not a diagnosis, by the way. This is more so saying and talking more about someone's movement pattern. How are how are they moving in single leg? How are they moving, you know, with the single leg squat? How are they moving when they're running? So someone who's very knee dominant will have trouble loading their hips. This is really common. I see this all the time when I'm doing an assessment with a runner, and I'm gonna break this down. So someone who's very knee dominant, they do a single leg squat. And if I had a dot on their hip bone on the side, a dot on the side of their knee joint, and a dot on the side of their ankle. So if you can start to imagine like these three little dots, they're as they're going down in a single leg squat from the side view, their hips, their hip bone, their hip joint tends to stay in line with their ankle joint. It is very like I like to say it's like your hip is on an elevator going up and down. So you'll see a lot of this knee coming really far forward, which it's okay if your knees go over your toes, but it tends to go really far forward. There's a really positive shin angle, which just means that you're in a lot of closed chain dorsiflexion. And most of the time a runner will say, like, if I ask them, where did you feel that when they do this single egg squat, they will say mostly their knee or their quad. So the difference is now if I'm looking at, and again, like I see this all the time, if you have patellifemoral pain syndrome, if you have like um jumper's knee, if you have quadricept tendinitis, if you have ITP syndrome, like this is very common. But if I'm like in a very ideal world, when someone is more hip dominant, those three dots look a little different from the side view when we're doing a single egg squat. So you'll see if someone is a little bit more hip dominant, the hip joint itself, when they're doing a single leg squat, is gonna be very behind the ankle joint. So it's gonna be more posterior. Another way of saying this is they're getting their hips back, they're able to actually load their glutes in a single egg squat. It's kind of like they're pretending like they're gonna tap their butt against a chair or against a block because now they're loading their glute max more versus just loading the the quads. Now, when I ask someone where they where they're feeling that single egg squat, they'll say, Oh, I feel this more in my glutes. Like I actually feel like my glutes are being used. So sometimes we can have really strong glutes, you know, and not use them with this appropriate movement pattern, especially in single leg. This is super common. This is a movement pattern issue. This is not necessarily a strength issue. Could it be? Sure. But a lot of the time what I see is the glutes are strong. If I ask someone if they, you know, what are you doing in your workouts? Oh, I'm squatting this weight, deadlifting this weight, it's like, okay, amazing. So, like with bilateral exercises, you're able to load the glute. You're able to load the quad appropriately. But once I get you in single leg, which is really important because obviously when we're running, we're in single leg, that's when things tend to be a little bit more anterior. The knee is diving forward more, there's more closed chain, closed chain dorsiflexion, the quad is being loaded more versus it being a balance, a nice balance at the hip and the knee and the ankle of the glutes going back, knee is still coming forward, but there's just a better balance of glute versus quad or hip versus knee dominance. Now, this is important because a knee-dominant runner tends to overstride a little bit more because they're unable to actually load their glutes and hamstrings. Therefore, they're not going to get into that nice, powerful hip extension position. Now, really, when I say that, I just mean you're about to push off the ground when you're running. Your leg is behind you, you're in what we call triple extension, hip extension, knee extension, planner flexion. You're about to push off the ground. Now, someone who's very knee dominant isn't necessarily gonna get into that nice and powerful hip extension position, and therefore their stride is gonna be a little bit more anterior. And a lot of the time, these types of runners are actually pushing more with their low back, they're hyperextending their low back instead of it coming from the glutes and hamstrings and their calves, and therefore they tend to overstride. So it's not, again, this is not a diagnosis. This is a movement pattern observation. So, what is the solution? The solution, I don't want you thinking this solution is just, well, I just need to keep doing my glute activation exercises, and I just need to keep strengthening my glutes. Again, you could have really, really strong glutes, but still not have a hip dominant movement pattern. I also think the problem with a lot of these glute activation exercises is that they're not actually working into hip extension. So think about like the common glute activation exercises. You see sidesteps, you see, you know, clamshells, um, you see like this the sideline hip abduction exercises. And all of those are fine. Like you're still working parts of your glute, but what you might need to work more on is actually getting your hips back into that hip extension piece. So, like, for example, practicing a single egg squat with a box behind you and you're practicing actually tapping your glutes back on the box and then standing up. That would be a much better solution because now we're working, you know, when you're at that um the bottom part of a single leg squat and you're in all that hip flexion, your glutes are in a very lengthened position. And then when you come up from the single leg squat, that's when you're rocking or not rocking, you're contracting into hip extension because you're going hip flexion to hip extension. So that might be a better exercise for you just to get into that more hip dominant movement pattern. Because again, your movement pattern, you know, I think I've said this three times in this episode, but I just really want to make it clear that you could have strong glutes, but still not, you know, use them appropriately in a single leg movement pattern, which we obviously need when we're running. And I know a lot of runners need to work more on their movement patterns versus like their true glute strength. You know, if I just did like a glute strength manual muscle test on the table and I'm like, your glutes are good, that does not mean you are using them appropriately when you're running. And we need to be able to do this to see a change in our running efficiency and prevent injuries. Now, if you're like, okay, Lisa, like I can do this single squat, I can practice this. But if you want a full strength plan designed for runners that improves the way that you move, so it directly improves your running because there's a big difference between being strong and running strong. I recommend you go through the runner's complete program. It's 12 weeks of full body strength and mobility, so you can actually run stronger, prevent injuries. You get three workouts a week. They take about 45 minutes to do. A lot of runners will only do the first two a week, especially if you're training for a race or you have if you have limited time. But then you can go through those mobility routines after a run. So this is really important because a lot of, you know, with glute strength and being able to use your glutes, you also need that hip extension piece coming from the hip joint. So there's a couple other pieces that go into it. But hopefully with this episode, you're able to understand more about like what it means to be a quad versus glute dominant runner and what you can do if you think you're a more uh quad dominant runner, which I really hope at this point you're thinking of it more as like a knee dominant runner. And also you're not afraid to strengthen your quads. We need really strong freaking quads to run. So don't be afraid to strengthen them. All right. I hope you have a good one. If I don't talk to you next week, maybe I'm in the hospital. We'll see. I hope you're enjoying this weather too. Bye.