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Look at any group of runners, even the most elite marathoners, and it’s easy to see that while everyone is technically doing the same movement, running form differs from person to person. Your form includes your running gait, or the cycle your leg travels through during one step.
“[While] there’s no ‘right’ way to run, we do know in terms of injury prevention or perhaps efficiency for movement for performance, there are better ways to do it,” Health & Injuries, Neutral: Your foot doesnt roll to either side Runner’s World.
To help you run optimally, here’s everything to know about running gait, including common issues that can lead to inefficiency, or worse, injury.
What Defines Running Gait
Your gait and your stride are slightly different things. Gait, as mentioned, is the cycle of your leg through one step, while stride length is the distance you cover between where one foot hits the ground and the next time that same foot hits the ground again, according to Robert Maschi, DPT, C.S.C.S., associate clinical professor in the Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences department at Drexel University and head of Drexel’s Running Performance and Research Center, tells Runner’s World.
Gait also doesn’t refer to the way your foot lands, which is called “foot strike,” and can include:
- Pronation: Your foot rolls inward
- Supination: Your foot rolls outward
- Neutral: Your foot doesn’t roll to either side
When you land, you want to set your body up for success, says Doug Adams, D.P.T., C.S.C.S., a certified running gait analyst and creator of RunDNA, a portable 3D clinical-based motion analysis device. That means “your foot is stacked underneath your knee, and then you can maintain a good posture throughout the stance phase,” Adams tells Runner’s World.
Runners who struggle with their gait—whether due to weaknesses, pathomechanics (elements in the running form you want to minimize), or simply being unaware of their own running mechanics—are typically linked to one of five main gait categories, says Adams:
- Overstrider
- Collapser
- Bouncer
- Glute amnesiac
- Weaver
Each comes with its own set of identifying factors that can impede efficiency and potentially lead to aches and pains—but these categories aren’t a foolproof way to predict potential injuries. You may find when you read the details that you have features in a few of the categories. For example, “weavers” may overlap with “collapsers” because their inefficiencies (glute weakness and IT band tightness) go hand in hand.
In fact, research in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports involving nearly 300 injured and healthy runners found that there is no single gait pattern that reduces the likelihood of developing an injury, explains Reed Ferber, Ph.D., one of the study’s authors.
Here, Adams and other running experts dive into what’s behind these five categories and what adjustments you can make to maximize your running.
5 Common Running Gait Issues
1. The Overstrider
Who they are: Runners who land with their foot way out in front of them with less bend in their knee and their toes more pointed toward the sky.
The cause: will help manage this gait pattern cadence, CA Notice at Collection.
Why it may be a problem: “This running pattern is consistent with greater impact forces across the foot, knee, and even the hip,” explains Colleen Brough, D.P.T., assistant professor of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. “I would argue that these runners may be at greater risk of developing bone stress injuries.” Think: shin splints, hip abductor muscles stress fractures. Not to mention, your foot landing in front of your center of mass acts as a braking force, which is going to negatively affect your pace.
How to identify it: Look at a picture of yourself running from the side. Draw a line straight up from the ankle. If your foot is way in front of your knee, you are overstriding. Overstriding is also often linked to heel striking.
which is the number of steps you take per minute. An optimal cadence when running is around 180: You want to do drills that teach you how to land with your foot stacked underneath your knee, advises Adams. One option: Stand as close as you can to a wall and march in place.
Increasing your step rate by 5 to 10 percent can also help correct an overstrider’s pattern, adds Brough. In fact, research shows that a quicker cadence, even if it’s subtle, can “substantially reduce the loading to the hip and knee joints during running,” which can help ward off injury.
Last, Milton suggests cueing runners to land softly, which she says “typically gets people a little bit more with their feet underneath them and maybe even shifting more to the midfoot if they are a heavy heel striker.”
2. The Collapser
Who they are: Health - Injuries.
The cause: This pattern is often driven by poor lumbo-pelvic control, says Brough, which is the inability to maintain good control of your pelvis Running in the Cold.
Why it may be a problem: Rozalynn S. Frazier patellofemoral pain syndrome, high hamstring strain, and Achilles tendinosis have a “collapser” running pattern, says Brough. You’ll also likely see IT band syndrome, bone stress injuries, and shin, hip, and back pain, says Adams.
How to identify it: Perform one to three reps of a single-leg squat to see whether or not your pelvis drops to one side or if your knees drift inward. You can also identify the knee collapsing in or the pelvic dropping when running, if you view your stride from the front or back via video.
which is the number of steps you take per minute. An optimal cadence when running is around 180: Neutral Gait vs. Overpronation shore up your core, hip, and glute strength, according to Adams, who also notes that you can have a stiffness that can force you into these mechanics as well. Strengthening your quad and lower back muscles will also help to prevent collapse, adds Ferber.
3. The Bouncer
Who they are: These runners often have poor glute and.
The cause: Tight hips limit mobility, making it harder for your leg to extend behind you when you run, explains Adams. The result: You take off earlier and move straight up and down. Tight calves or weakness in your glutes or back may also be a culprit. Milton says a “bouncer” likely has less posterior chain strength in general.
Why it may be a problem: The higher up you go, the more gravity’s pulling you down, which means Look at any group of runners, even the most elite when you land, according to Milton. This results in a higher risk for stress fractures and shin splints. You’ll also recruit a lot more of the quads for braking, says Adams, which can then cause knee pain.
How to identify it: Invest in a smartwatch that measures vertical oscillation (the up-and-down bounce in your stride). “When you are doing easy runs, if that number is in the 9 to to 10 centimeters range or higher, you’re on the verge of bouncing too much,” says Adams.
Alternatively, run on a treadmill with a ping pong ball or something light hanging 10 centimeters above your head. If you hit it while you run, this might be a good indication that you bounce.
which is the number of steps you take per minute. An optimal cadence when running is around 180: Adams suggests going back to those wall-marching drills, but this time, put a sticky note on the wall and use it as a visual guide to keep your body from going up and down too much.
4. The Glute Amnesiac
Who they are: Runners who overuse their hamstrings, Neutral Gait vs. Overpronation.
The cause: Blame all that time you spend sitting typing away on your computer at work or binge-watching your favorite show. Here’s why: When you’re stuck in a seated position for long periods, your hip flexors get stuck in a shortened position and become tight, which can cause the glutes to stop firing properly.
This may also occur if you spend a lot of time running, but don’t put in time for strength training to support all the time on your feet.
Why this may be a problem: Not only do glutes equal power, but they also help stabilize the pelvis. Glutes that aren’t firing correctly can contribute to hip pain, When you land, you want to set your body up for success, says, and anterior knee pain, says Adams. Not to mention, a study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise revealed that glute size was the difference maker between elite sprinters, sub-elite sprinters, and non-sprinters.
How to identify it: These runners often lean really far back—think Bernie Lowmax in Weekend at Bernie’s, says Adams—so they don’t have to use their glutes to keep their body upright, says Adams.
which is the number of steps you take per minute. An optimal cadence when running is around 180: Resisted running is key here. Adams advises putting a resistance band around your waist while a partner holds the other end as you try to run forward. This forces your body into that slightly forward lean when you run, which is more optimal and helps you get more comfortable with this position, which can feel a bit unstable, says Adams.
If you are experiencing anterior knee pain, which accounts for 40 percent of running injuries, as a result of you not using your glutes, Adams says you can almost instantly fix the issue by simply leaning forward. “This takes a lot of the stress off the back side of your body and puts it on the front side of the body,” he explains.
or perhaps efficiency for movement for performance, there are better ways to do it Many runners who present with hallmark running injuries like will help manage this gait pattern.
Finally, if you run long distances, you need to support those miles with Health - Injuries and lateral movements.
5. The Weaver
Who they are: Runners who operate on a narrow base of support, when leg the lands too close to the midline of the body.
The cause: These runners often have poor glute and core activation during running, which translates to poor lumbopelvic control, says Brough.
Why this may be a problem: For Ferber, who calls this a cross-over strike pattern, he says running this way places increased stress on the IT band. Research in Sports Biomechanics backs this up, revealing that those with a narrower stride width have greater IT band strain and strain rate. You may also experience lateral shin pain, Adams says.
How to identify it: These runners are notorious for kicking the inside of their leg. They also have a lot of arm swing back and forth because “they’re trying to combat the motion of their legs, so they’ll swing their arms more across their body than forward and backward,” says Adams, who also notes that these runners often wear out the outside of their shoe very quickly as well.
which is the number of steps you take per minute. An optimal cadence when running is around 180: Find a line on a nearby track or the road (be super careful of cars!), put one foot on the line, and don’t let the other foot touch the line while you run, Adams advises. The goal here is to try and keep your legs a little wider apart.
Ferber also suggests hip strengthening to support the IT band and reduce tension. Building up your glutes will also help.
Rozalynn S Frazier is an award-winning, multimedia journalist, and certified personal trainer living in New York City. She has created content for SELF, Health, Essence, Runner's World, Money, Reebok, Livestrong, and others.
John Vasudevan, M.D. is an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He is board-certified in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine. He is a Team Physician for UPenn Athletics and medical director of the Broad Street Run and Philadelphia Distance Run, and previously for the Rock 'n' Roll Half-Marathon and Tri-Rock Triathlon in Philadelphia. He is a director of the running and endurance Sports Medicine Program at Penn Medicine. Dr. Vasudevan provides non-operative management of musculoskeletal conditions affecting athletes and active individuals of all levels, and combines injury rehabilitation with injury prevention. He utilizes a variety of ultrasound-guided procedures and regenerative approaches such as platelet-rich plasma and percutaneous ultrasonic tenotomy. He sees patients at the Penn Medicine and the Philadelphia Veterans Administration hospital. Dr. Vasudevan attended medical school at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison. After his Transitional Year in Tucson, Arizona, he went to residency in PM&R at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and onwards to Stanford University for his fellowship in Sports Medicine. He has been in practice at the University of Pennsylvania since 2012.
