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Ever wonder what you look like when you’re running? As a physiotherapist, my eyes have become trained to look at body mechanics and it’s amazing to see how there is such variation on how people run. No one teaches us how to run. It’s a natural movement pattern that develops naturally as a child. Babies grow and develop their bodies and brains; without any instruction, they get up one day and just start to walk. This requires a complex pattern of coordinating hundreds of muscles and ligaments with a huge network of nerves. So as children grow, they move with what seems to be most natural for their bodies and brains. Our bodies are amazing machines!

Unfortunately, we see our fair share of running related injuries here at PhysioWorks. While there is no perfect way to run, there are definitely ways to make our running gait more efficient. Often this relates to a form of an overuse injury. It isn’t always as simple as running too much. How we strike the ground, what our posture looks like, which muscles are weak and/or tight all affect the efficiency of our running gait. Running is really repetitive. One will take about 10,000 steps in a 10 km run. Optimizing this complex system will help decrease your chances of injury and help with accomplishing your running goals.

We offer video gait analysis at PhysioWorks to help runners (and walkers) improve their efficiency and identify causes for their injuries. This includes a full biomechanical analysis performed by a registered physiotherapist followed by a video analysis on our treadmill. Our software helps to identify mechanics like alignment, foot striking, posture and other factors. It’s fun experience to see yourself run on video. Much like listening to your own voice on a recording, it’s usually not what you expect! After the analysis, we build a program that includes recommendations on your running form, a running program and an exercise program to improve your mechanics. We see a range of runners, from those who are just starting to run to seasoned marathoners. If you have any questions about our video gait analysis, feel free to contact us here at PhysioWorks.

Byron Chan BScPT, GIMS, CAFCI