What is running analysis?
Whether you have 50 marathons under your belt or have just bought your first pair of runners to start your training, a running analysis can be a great way to find areas that might hold you back in your training and as well as prevent you picking up injuries that might stop you dead in your tracks.
Aside from injury prevention, if you can run more economically with better force production and less energy waste you might even get faster!
What does it involve?
A trained specialist such as a physiotherapist can assess you statically and dynamically, to measure your joint ranges of movement, look for areas where muscles are tight or shortened as well as strength and weakness. Your running can then be filmed and your unique movement analysed to determine what injury you might have an increased risk of developing so that you can make changes now to prevent these and ways to improve your efficiency. Changes you make might be directly your pattern of movement or can be increasing flexibility or strength in specific areas so that you movement with change as a result.
What will I need to change?
This is a completely unique process for each individual as everyone has a distinct movement pattern so you will not be told to make any changes that are not specifically going to improve YOUR running.
Things that will be considered are:
- Your biomechanics
- Muscle strength
- Muscle length
- Movement control
- Posture
- Running style
- Cadence
- Posture
- Muscle activation
- Training plan
- How often?
- How much?
- How fast?
- Cross training with strength and conditioning or other alternatives
- Soft tissue stretching and recovery aids
- Static or dynamic stretching, when is which best?
- Massage
- Foam rolling
To find out more about running analysis, contact our reception team or organise a chat with one of our amazing physiotherapists.