What is the Benefit of Having Someone Watch You Run?

One of the first, and most important things, Coach Valerie has her clients do when they begin working together is run while she watches them do it. For the online clients, this means they have to send in a video of them running. Now, you might be asking yourself, what is the benefit of having someone watch you run? 

Sometimes when you go out for a run you may wonder - Am I running correctly? Am I practicing my movement the right way? Or the most common question, why do I feel pain after I run? Having someone watch you run gives you all of those answers. How?

Simply put, allowing a running coach to watch you run gives them the chance to see what, if anything, is wrong with your running form. This is called a Gait Analysis. 

In the event something is wrong with the way that you are running, your coach can then train you in the proper form necessary to be able to run pain free. That is the number one goal of RunRx. 

Running should help your body get strong…

...your brain focus and 

...your emotions stay in check. 

Running, when done correctly, does not create more injury.

Unfortunately, many people who have been running a while, and even some folks who have just started, are actually doing it incorrectly. There is a correct Standard of Movement that is called the Gait Cycle. It is composed of three elements: The Pose, The Fall and The Pull.

Every runner, big, small, fast or slow goes through these movements; it’s when and how they progress through these movements that creates pain and injury. 

Let’s look at three very common running form mistakes:

Pushing off the rear foot: When you push off the foot that is behind you, you have to then take the entire weight of the leg and bring it past your center of mass to propel yourself forward. This fatigues the quads (front of leg) and hips. If you keep your supporting foot under your hips in a line and simply pull in response to the fall you reduce the strain on your quads, hips and knees. You use your hamstrings as they are meant to be used.

Reaching with the front foot: When you try to increase speed by reaching your foot, you are stopping your momentum and causing impact onto that front leg. The impact is 3x your body weight, so if you’re 150 lbs - that 450 lbs of impact up that ankle, shin and knee. Instead of reaching if you simply pull your ankle under your hip and keep your ears shoulders and hips in line you can easily replace the supporting foot as you fall. 

Leaning forward from the waist when you run is also a big mistake many runners make, unconsciously. Fatigue causes you to slouch and so put pressure on your back and the legs kick out behind you, causing you to then have to bring them back to the front of your body just to move forward.

As you can see many of these mistakes are hard to notice. I can’t tell you how many runners I work with think they are doing everything right, until we look at the video. Many will do the skill practice with perfect form, then when they go to run they fall back into old habits. 

It’s normal, it’s how we all learn a new movement, it takes practice but it also takes having someone watch you periodically to make sure you're maintaining the right movement. 

Are you ready to work with a Running Coach? SIgn up for the RunRxStrong Membership and get a Video Gait Analysis included.