Paleo Runners: Aug 15, 2012

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Crossover Gait

Just be more stable! The first time I considered where (in relation to our hips) our feet should fall is while watching "Running the Sahara". In this documentary, the elite, amazing runners complained that in running in the desert, they would frequently have to run in the tire track of the support vehicle. That meant their feet would follow a narrow line and that was contrary to their normal running style. That comment rang in my head while i'd run i'd purposely "straddle" sidewalk seams to ensure my feet landed below the hip sockets from whence they sprout.

I know my efforts in a slightly wider landing led to my 5km PR - there are indisputable torsional benefits gained by not crossing over.

Walk on a piece of string or along a seam in the concrete or walk on the lane dividing lines on your local high school or college track. What happens ? If you walk on a single line you will find yourself more unstable as compared to walking with a foot fall directly under your hips and knees the way it is supposed to occur. The limbs are a pendulum and economy and biomechanical efficiency as well as injury reduction will occur when the parts operate in the most effective manner.
We have all of our cross over runners, as you see her doing in the first half of this video before she corrects to anti-cross over (ie. natural), first walk on a line. In our case we use the metal drainage grate outside our office that you see in the video for just that purpose, they walk the grate. Then they run the grate. We ask them to feel ....... want to read the rest ? head over to our blog here for the entire article.