More garbage on the internet about running myths. We need a Gait Police. Wait ? Maybe that should be us !
This MSNBC article is exactly why we are trying to spread the word. This article has so many half truths and misleadings that it isn’t even worth reading in our opinion. MAybe next time they will ask us for this kinda stuff.
One of the first things you must know the next time you decide to watch your running in a mirror, or get a professional gait analysis done, is that what you see is not the problem…….so carry this main thought with you.
* What you, or your gait analysis professional or your running partner behind you, see in that mirror or on that video is often not the problem. How you are moving is your neuro-musculoskeletal system’s best interpretation to demonstrate a functional gait with the parts that ARE working correctly. In other words, what you are seeing is a best case scenario for the central nervous system to achieve stability most of the time.
So, when your coach or therapist or gait “Specialist” tells you that you need to increase your arm swing on the right, or turn your left foot in……to make a correction towards what looks symmetrical to them and to you, please stop them and say “but that is not the problem, that is my strategy to run as best as i can. I am not doing those things because i have nothing better to do when i run!” And, even worse, tell them not to give you exercises to correct those visual flaws ! And educated person in the field of neuromusculoskeletal medicine has to make those recommendations based on the faulty sensory and motor patterns they assess, and the muscular weaknesses that are discovered. Neuroadaptive changes are for a good reason, even though they may look bad. For example, a right foot might be turning out into the frontal plane for the good reason that your hip stability in the frontal plane is insufficient, and thus the best strategy determined by your central nervous system was to turn out the foot to better engage and protect that plane. It might not however, be logical to us to make the change so far away from the area of problem, but for those of us who do this daily over and over again, it makes pretty decent sense.
The patterns you display are neuromechanical strategies, strategies and compensations to best stabilize the body parts during the activity. It is obvious to the viewer that the pattern is wrong, but the brain has made these changes for a good reason. Don’t think you are smarter than your brain ! (how’s that for a final statement !)
We are, The Gait Guys
