TECHNICAL
What does your gait say about you? Our gait says a lot about us and our physical wellbeing - but what does it all mean? By Nick Moloney Sean Murphy has worked in the running industry for the best part of six years, specialising in gait analysis and matching runners with the perfect shoe. An avid runner himself, Sean has a YouTube channel called Ritheoiri BAC where he shares some of the wisdom he has collected over many years of marathon running and racing at club level.
R
unning is a ubiquitous form of movement. It is instinctual across humans and most land-based animals. Similarly, your gait is not something you think about but is simply the pattern of how you walk and run. When we run, we are in the floating stage of our gait cycle. The length of this cycle is defined by the initial contact of one foot with the ground and ends when the same foot hits the ground again. “Your [running] gait is essentially your stride per minute. It is the way you first make contact with the ground, whether you are a forefoot, mid-foot or a heel striker. People who heel strike tend to get more shin and knee issues, people who strike at the ball of their foot tend to get more heel and calf issues. The sweet spot is the mid-foot strike,” says Sean, who has specialised in gait analysis over the past six years working in running stores around Dublin.
Our gait says a lot about us, our physical wellbeing and our lifestyle 30
Irish Runner #1 - 2022
Our gait says a lot about us and our physical well being. This is because it usually reflects our lifestyle, such as how much time we spend sitting, how our weight and body shape affect the way we move and, according to recent studies, even the amount of sleep we get. Runners stand to gain a lot from having an efficient gait. If you ever look at the leading pack in an elite marathon, you
will spot a lot of similarities. The obvious thing we can see about their gait is stride length – Kipchoge and Mo Farah have an average stride length of just over two meters, slightly longer than average. But what we can’t always see is what’s happening when their feet hit the ground. “Mid-foot striking is all potential motion, you are never breaking. When you heel strike you are breaking every time you actually hit the ground. It is not an efficient gait cycle. That doesn’t mean there aren’t professional runners who heel strike, but the majority of them are mid-foot strikers or on the balls of their foot.” Figuring out your gait is easier than you think. You could start by getting a professional gait analysis at a running shop which
will take a lot of the guessing out of the process when it comes to matching you with the right pair of shoes. Or if you just want to see for yourself first, you can get a friend to film you while you’re running and zoom in to see exactly how your foot hits the ground, paying attention to what happens at your ankle. A quick and easy method you can do from your couch is to simply analyse the sole of your current or old running shoes to see where all of the wear is occurring. “Look at the wear on the sole of your shoe. If all the wear is on the inside of the shoe under the ball of your foot, that means you are running inwards. If all the wear is in the middle of the shoe, that means you’re running fairly neutrally and if all the
