Are you striding out?

Reading yesterday's Sunday Tmes, there was an article whose tag was that the Prime Minister, David Cameron's stride when running is to short. The claim is made by Bob Pritchard, Head of Somax Performance Institute in California. He goes on to say: That those who run with a short stride length increase their risk of injury. As a runner with a small stride angle will usually try to make up for it by reaching out with their lower leg to increase their stride length. This may result in softening of the knee cartilige, long term knee pain and possibly arthritis of the knee. A 1 degree increase in a persons stride angle means that they will cover 2% more ground with each stride. Bob Pritchard also claims that this is common among many of Britains elite athletes and sites the example of British 800m champion Jemma Simpson who has a stride angle of 84 degrees, while most of her competitors have stride angles greater than 100 degrees.

Comments

Christina said…
And I am going to google "stride angle." .... :)
How are you?
Alan Dent said…
Thanks for asking Christina - starting to feel better with the cycling but cant wait for the go ahead to start running - back at physio tomorrow, so fingers crossed