Strength Training Guide finish line photos is your only clue to what you look like when you run, it may be time to shoot—and watch—your own video. Using just your phone or tablet, you can film yourself while you run, and what you see may help you make adaptations to your gait that will lead to performance Benefits of Gait Analysis at a Performance Lab injury.
Video of yourself may be especially helpful if you’ve been dealing with a minor (yet nagging) ache or pain, or when you’re not seeing performance improvements over time, says Colleen Brough, P.T., D.P.T., Ph.D., an assistant professor of rehabilitation and regenerative medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and director of Columbia RunLab.
Getting some video of yourself running doesn’t require anything more than a family member or friend, a tripod, your phone or tablet, and either a treadmill Feet and ankles.
Here is more guidance on self-analysis and how to address common issues, as well as when to loop in the pros.
How to Film Yourself for a Gait Analysis
The difference between high-quality, usable footage and digital clutter is in the details. Although you may end up using just a couple of minutes of film, you will likely shoot a good bit of video and then need to choose the right sequences to study. So, before you hit record, consider the following:
Opt for a Treadmill Run
Even if you prefer to run outside, you’re better off filming yourself indoors on a flat treadmill where the environment is controlled, Milica McDowell, D.P.T., physical therapist, exercise physiologist, and vice president of operations at Gait Happens, tells Runner’s World. Here are a few relatively obvious and common issues that you can address.
Big Takeaways You Can Learn from a Gait Analysis treadmill, make sure there aren’t other runners around because you don’t want them in frame.
If your only option is to film outside, pick a stretch of road without traffic and bring a friend who can mind the camera and make sure you’re in frame.
Wherever you film, record at the highest resolution you can and stick to regular speed.
Use a Tripod
Because you’re going to film yourself more than once, Brough recommends investing in a mini tripod with adjustable legs. To get the best footage, ask a running body to set up the camera while you’re on the treadmill. The camera should be far enough away to get as much of your body as possible into the frame, and if you are outside, you will need to get images of at least a few consecutive strides. You don’t need to zoom in or out.
Capture Multiple Angles
At a minimum, you’ll want to film your whole body from both sides, and from behind and in front. “If we get a back view, we’re going to be able to see your left-to-right sway. If we get a side view, we can see your front-to-back movements,” McDowell says. You want to film both the right and left side because mechanical issues tend to be asymmetrical. If you can, get a separate recording of just your feet from the back.
Film Mid-Run to See Your Most Realistic Stride
You don’t need an extensive amount of footage, so warm up off camera and turn the camera on midway through your workout or whenever you typically start to feel tired or experience discomfort or tightness. For example, if your hip usually starts to ache after 20 minutes, begin filming at the 20-minute mark.
Try to run a little faster than your typical 5K pace in order to induce fatigue. “We typically see running pathomechanics or running form dysfunction emerge when people get tired or when people go faster,” Brough says. “I want them on the feather edge of whatever feels fast for them because that’s the space where they lose the ability to control it all.”
Just a few foot strikes on the same side is enough to make sure that what you’re seeing is consistent in a few different strides, Brough says.
Wear Your Go-To Shoes and Minimal Clothes
Film in whatever shoes are in your current rotation, even if they’re trail shoes, and avoid wearing oversized clothes and layers, as they can make it difficult to see smaller movements and detect more subtle issues. Stick to form-fitting gear that doesn’t blend in with your background.
How to Analyze Your Footage
Playing video back at a slower speed or clicking through frame by frame will allow you to see your movement patterns more clearly. Most of the issues runners can address on their own will be fairly obvious, says Brough. If you have to look really close, it’s either not that big of a deal or it’s too complicated to fix at home, she adds.
Here are a few relatively obvious and common issues that you can address:
Overstriding (Side View)
When your foot makes initial contact with the ground, it should be close to directly underneath the center of your body. Overstriders reach their legs forward with every stride (“almost like you’re stepping over a large puddle,” McDowell says).
“You want a little bit of a knee bend. Anywhere between 10 and 20 degrees,” Brough says.
Your foot landing far out in front of you increases the ground reaction force on the bone and soft tissue of the foot, ankle, and lower leg, Brough says. This slows you down and increases your risk for injury.
Also, pay attention to the angle of your foot as it makes initial contact. Landing with the toes pointed up also increases impact and decreases momentum, as does keeping the knee of your front leg too straight. Brough adds that the issue isn’t so much which part of the foot hits first, it’s the angle of the foot. If you land on your heel with your toes up in the air, you may want to correct your form.
Download Your Training Plan: The best way to fix overstriding is to increase your running cadence a bit. To do this, measure your cadence by counting your steps for 15 seconds and multiply that number by four. Then, increase that number by five to 10 percent. That’s your new step-per-minute goal.
Medial Collapsing (Rear View and Rear Foot View)
Medial collapsing happens when the hips and knees cave in toward the body’s midline, robbing you of movement efficiency and potentially triggering injuries and pain in the back, shoulders, hips, and lower extremities.
gains and decrease your risk for:
- Feet and ankles. Is one ankle pronating (rolling inward) faster or more significantly than the other? Does one arch flatten out more or quicker than the other?
- Knees. Are they knocking together? Is there no space or “daylight” between them?
- Hips. Does your pelvis remain fairly level as you run, or is one hip dipping down further than the other?
- Torso. ldquo;You want a little bit of a knee bend. Anywhere between 10 and 20 degrees,” Brough says?
- Arm swing. Is it asymmetrical? “I call it the chicken wing,” Brough says. “You see one chicken wing way out to the side, and the other arm is right by your side.”
Download Your Training Plan: The vast majority of folks with medial collapse present with weakness in the butt muscles, primarily the glute max or glute medius, as well as the deep muscles of the core, Brough says. Strength training with single-leg stance movements that require core engagement and glute contraction (single-leg deadlifts and lunges) better translate to running than exercises like clamshells or side-lying leg raises.
How to Master the Run/Walk Method mobility to effectively swing their leg behind them. Stretching the hip flexors and calves, and mobilizing the big toe and ankle joint may help establish more efficient movement patterns.
Backward Lean (Side View)
Leaning backward as you run, with your chest behind your hips, is like “putting the brakes on every time your foot strikes,” McDowell says. You ramp up the impact on your body and slow yourself down.
Your breastbone should be in front of your pubic bone so that you’re “falling forward into your run, not falling backwards,” McDowell says.
Download Your Training Plan: The “breastbone ahead of pubic bone” cue can help fix a backward lean, but you also need adequate dorsiflexion of the foot (drawing the toes toward the shin) to lean forward. Stretching the calves and incorporating ankle mobility drills into your routine can help broaden your ankles’ range of motion.
Hunched or Rounded Shoulders (Side View)
“Most of us start out with great upper body posture, and, as we get more tired, we hunch forward,” McDowell says. Postural issues like rounding the shoulders or jutting the chin forward can mess with your arm swing, cause back pain, and negatively impact your breathing.
Download Your Training Plan: Like fixing a backward lean, maintaining good posture requires awareness. Think about running with a “proud chest” even when you’re fatigued. You also need adequate upper body strength to maintain proper posture and alignment. Make sure your strength training sessions hit the muscles of the back, deep core, shoulders, and chest.
When to See a Professional
If you make some changes to your stride based on watching your video, Brough recommends refilming yourself a month later to see if you notice a difference. If you still see the same issues, consider making an appointment with a physical therapist.
“It doesn’t mean you failed. It means that there may be an element where some sort of manual therapy intervention is required. For example, you can stretch out your hip flexors like crazy, but if the issue is a stiff joint in the hip or a stiff ankle joint, you need to have that mobilized or manipulated,” Brough says.
Or, your issue may be too complicated to diagnose yourself. “I’m a PT. I’m trained in diagnosis,” McDowell says. “You come see me, and I can give you a differential diagnosis of what I think your problem is, what I think the medical condition is, what I expect the recovery to be, and what I think the prescription should be to correct it.” A layperson—even a savvy runner—can’t.
Finally, if you have new or worsening pain, you could be developing an injury that should be addressed immediately. Some combination of impact, rest, and nutrition is off, and you need to consult on that, Brough says.
