Up to 80% of recreational runners will experience an injury limiting training time or competition in a given year. Running injuries are multifactorial in nature with contributions from muscle imbalances, training errors, and running biomechanics. High magnitude and rates of lower limb loading have previously been associated with running injuries. In our Physical Therapy practice, we utilize gait retraining in runners with real time feedback to correct these biomechanical errors in turn reduce the abnormal forces across the lower body. Often runner’s will feel an immediate change in their symptoms will simple gait corrections. A recent study supports the utilization of gait retraining for runners with high rates of peak braking forces.
Napier and colleagues studied the impact of real time running gait biofeedback in 12 female recreational runners with high peak braking forces (JOSPT. 2019). All runners were given 8 lab based sessions of gait retraining at weeks 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 of their 1/2 marathon training. Real time feedback was provided to help reduce the peak braking forces occurring at foot strike. Authors found the runners reduced their peak forces by 15% during the training by reducing their step length and increasing their step frequency. The researchers also found the changes in each runner’s gait became part of their natural running gait cycle at the end of the trial.