What do these pictures tell you about my form? (Read 1714 times)

In my nonexpert opinion, the hip drop is caused by weak gluteus medius muscles/hip abductors...In school gym I think we used to do "fire hydrants" to strengthen this area. Looks silly but they really work. There are other exercises described online that may be more updated.

LOOKS GOOD. I was a sprinter/turned distance guy in 8th grade. I had an issue with my shoulders riding up...so to fix ... my hands cross at my pockets and while running my normal pace they never go above my navel...and never across my body. As the run progresses and I get toward the end I begin to work my arms more. It seems to help me be able to stride out alot faster at the end of runs b/c I don't think about my legs but my arm action. This is just me though. Overall you look to have a good carriage and arms aren't flailing out to far out, up, or across.

Your hip on the side of the trailing leg would naturally come down quite a bit lower. I don't see anything un-natural about your pictures; in fact, I can probably find a dozen photos of elite runners, Olympic champions or world record holders, looking very similar to yours at various stage of your running, although the speed is slightly different so some of the angles are a bit off... Here's the image of an Olympic marathon champon, former world record holder in the marathon; compare where his knees are with those in the one of your pictures (38107-085-024 ): Your hip bone is supported by your spine in its middle. Your legs are coming off from either side of your hip, which is approximately, what, 6~8 inches or so to the either side. Most of us land close to the middle line--this is why you tend to land on the outer edge of the heel and you actually pronate, which is a natural movement...to a degree. At the moment of this impact, your leg is sitting in angle and the landing force will push your hip (on the side of landing foot) upward and slightly outward. As this happens, while the hip bone is supported in the middle, the other side of the hip would move lower. In fact, your hip bone would "rotate" on the either sides; race walkers use this movement to their advantage to gain stride length. At this point, unless you know you DO have some specific issue and it is actualy caused by lowering of the hip, I would not try to do anything; particularly any exercise that isolates muscle, or a group of muscles, and strengthen only that area. It seems to me, you have a speculation based on imagination and you are linking it to some minor soreness you may or may not be experiencing. It's good to think ahead and try to take a proactive measure; but, unless you know clearly what you're doing, it COULD lead to another issue, or I should say, a real issue. The best advise I can give you is; instead of coming up with some specific exercise, run lots of rugged undulating cross country courses. This way, your legs and hips in general would be strengthened in a natural way.

In my nonexpert opinion, the hip drop is caused by weak gluteus medius muscles/hip abductors...In school gym I think we used to do "fire hydrants" to strengthen this area. Looks silly but they really work. There are other exercises described online that may be more updated.

Milerbonnie: Is there any visual for this exercise? I'm curious... And what all you guys mean by "hip drop"? I mean, as far as I'm concerned, like I said, it's natural (depending, of course, on the degree...).

Nobby, I'm surprised by your answer. You often talk about "sitting in the bucket". That you like to see the body leaning forward I thought that she was doing that. How do we learn to run like one of your "girls"? E.g. I saw the picture of Susan Running, she runs simply beautiful.

Bugs: Hills! ;o) Seiously, Susan does lots of hills. She's now in Hungary and there aren't many hills over where she lives; but she sent me some pictures and it seems there are tons of steps. So she'd be doing lots of step running. Sitting in a bucket; yeah, not a good technique. But I thought what the original poster meant by "hip down" is one side of the hip coming down lower than the other side (as I explained). The problem with message board diagnosis like this is quite often the readers don't have a clear idea of what the original poster is talking about. The advantage, I've found, is that we really get a lot of variety of views and experience which I've learnt a lot from. But I've also seen that sometimes the reader would come up with some conclusion which actually doesn't make sense; yet, out of good will, offer solution which in fact possibly hurt the OP further. This is actually why I wanted to know what the OP actually meant by "hip down" and what the exercise Milerbonnie prescribed. It may have worked great for Milerbonnie for whatever she had; but it could actually be something completely different from what the OP was talking about. So how's your preparation for TCM coming along?

The problem with message board diagnosis like this is quite often the readers don't have a clear idea of what the original poster is talking about. The advantage, I've found, is that we really get a lot of variety of views and experience which I've learnt a lot from. But I've also seen that sometimes the reader would come up with some conclusion which actually doesn't make sense; yet, out of good will, offer solution which in fact possibly hurt the OP further. This is actually why I wanted to know what the OP actually meant by "hip down" and what the exercise Milerbonnie prescribed. It may have worked great for Milerbonnie for whatever she had; but it could actually be something completely different from what the OP was talking about.

Oh boy. I knew I probably shouldn't have said anything. I'm no doctor or biomechanical expert fer sure, and you're correct the exercise could be completely inapplicable. However, don't you think that if a person percieves a biomechanical flaw that perhaps it is actually there on some level. Something doesn't look of feel right to Anne and she is striving to fix it in order to avoid a potential injury that would curtail her running. At any rate, for those interested, "hydrants" are simply getting on all fours like a doggy, balancing on one knee and lifting the other knee out to the side until it paralells the shoulder. Ha. Like the dog does at a lampost. It works your butt and inner thigh good. These muscles are often lacking in strength for people. Our running motion is mostly forward and rarely sideward so these muscles can be weak. I do not think that doing this exercise can cause any undue harm. We used to do 50 or more on each side in gym class with no ill effects, except making our tushies look more toned. LOL.

Ooops! If anybody who should watch what he says, it would probably be me! ;o) I didn't mean "you". In fact, I honestly wanted to know about this "hydrant" exercise and THAT is one of those things I would probably learn from forum such as this. Core exercises, and I would consider this "hydrant" exercise as one of these, definitely help. And, most of us probably can use them anyways. Having said that, however, in terms of this "hip down" thing the OP is talking about; if it is in fact causing any problem and if she needs to correct this movement, I would imagine the thing for her to do is to strengthen core muscle groups that would "support" her hip bone upward??? I'm no anatomy expert either and I'm just throwing a quetion here; abductors or addactors and glutes and all, they are all, if I remember it correctly, more or less muscles to swing our legs around. What contributes to stabilizing the hip bone, I would imagine, would be more of the abdominal muscles and/or lower back muscles??? Someone with more extensive anatomy background, help us out here please! AnneCA: In regards to (possible) ITB issue; I see ITBS as one of "modern high tech shoe deseases". I started running in early 1970s in Japan and I cannot recall ever hearing anything like that until very recently. Even today in Japan where many people still run what we now call "minimalist" shoes, I don't recall ever hearing about ITBS. As you know, ITB runs on the lateral side of your leg. Most shoe manufacturers are so hooked with the idea of "over-pronation prevention". Most of us "pronate" as a natural movement anyways and, I would guess, probably less than 10% actually pronate in excess. They would put those rigid plastic (or in some cases, metal) pieces to "stabilize" the shoe; or they might overly build-up medial side of the shoe to stop our foot from "rolling inward". The trend, as a result, is to push our legs more and more outward where ITB runs, causing to put undue pressure on it, particularly on the lateral side of the knee (you have described your issue more around the hip area???). Sometimes I see people just wearing and standing in a certain type of "stability" shoe and I can see their legs are bowing out laterally, surely putting a lot of pressure on the outside the knees. One time, I was sitting right behind this guest speaker who was wearing shoes like that. Afterwards, I asked her if she ever had ITB issue and...well, fair enough! I would be surprised if she didn't! From the sequal pictures of your running, it doesn't seem like you have any structural issue (bow-leg or knock-knee); you don't seem to wear those overly built-up shoes either. But if you actually do have ITB issue, my suggestion would be, and just suppose you get suckered in and try something for absolutely nothing, get some very low-profile shoes; some of those racing flats like Mizuno or NB racing flats, Brooks T-series or ASICS HyperSpeed, etc., and run in them. Start out with short easy jog; gradually build up. During the initial stage, alternate shoes. Constantly talk to your legs and see what, if any, difference you feel... What it is is; you'll develop probably most natural running style when there's no artificial "support" built-in in your shoes. This young lady, Susan, I mentioned something about this minimalist shoe business earlier when we started working together (it was something to do with running XC in those rigid bulky shoes...). She ended up converting completely to minimalist shoes now. I didn't know this until recently but she said she used to have lots of knee problem when she was in collete; orthotics helped some, but not all. Now, she said, she trains and races in racing flats and she hadn't had a knee issue ever since. It may not work for everybody (she very petite and runs fast!) but something to consider.

As a non-expert i will not offer an opinion, but wanted to say I found Nobby's remarks interesting and helpful, like the picture he posted, too. Second thoughts: As i would like to learn more about this I will add -looks like you are a mid-foot or forefoot striker, shoulders look relaxed, elbows just slightly wide perhaps, reasonably erect. The picture of Susan is quite different as she is powering up a hill. (Is that accurate analysis?) Thanks! Simon