John is a classic example of someone we work with here at The Running School, who we helped get back to running during or after an injury. He came to see us after suffering chronic lower back pain from a herniated disk and sciatic pain down his left leg. We started working with John after most of his symptoms had improved, but he was still experiencing lower back pain while running.
Biomechanical Analysis
During John’s Biomechanical Analysis we looked at John’s walking, running and took him through a functional movement analysis (FMA). We found John had lost fluidity in his movement, which is common with chronic pain, especially in the lower back. He had poor balance and was overusing his feet and ankles to keep him balanced rather than using stability muscles further up the chain, around his core and hips. His interaction with the ground was slow, resulting in slow footwork. John had been unable to run and maintain his fitness since his injury which meant he was getting out of breath easily.
Although John no longer had pain when walking, he still maintained some compensations as if he had. He was walking with a very stiff upper body and not swinging his arms at all, which is common when someone is trying to protect their back and minimise pain. This is in part due to having experienced pain for a long period of time but also because he hadn’t trained himself out of these movement patterns.
John was also locking out his knees when walking which is indicative of someone overusing their quads and hip flexor muscles to pull themselves forward rather than using the posterior chain to effectively propel themselves forward. It was a similar story with John’s running. He was what we call a ‘shuffle runner’, spending a long time on the ground and keeping his feet close to the floor. His arms did very little to help propel him forward which led to twisting his torso. He was also shifting his weight to his left side slightly.
John Before & After The Running School
Rehabilitation and Running Technique Coaching
Before we could start John’s running technique coaching, we needed to improve the efficiency of his walking and build up his strength and fitness. The first 6 weeks of John’s time at The Running School in Birmingham were used to improve John’s walking gait as well as work on the strength and activation of the muscles we use a lot when running efficiently, namely the core, glutes and hamstrings.
We used a combination of strength, activation and mobility exercises and walking re-education coaching to achieve this. Then we moved on to focus more on his running technique. We worked on increasing flight time as he was spending a long time on the floor, creating a lighter and less impactful feeling when running. This was achieved by utilising his posterior chain and reducing his overstride. We also got John using his arms to help propel him rather than using them just as a balancing tool. John was able to make the changes quickly, easily and with no pain after completing his rehab strength sessions.
By the end of the sessions, John was not only running better, faster, and pain-free but also fitter, stronger, and moving better. Great work, John; keep up the good work!
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